Outtaverse part 4: With a family like this
by Madcap13
Summary: The only thing Tara wants for her birthday is to be human and Xander shows off with super powers that even Angel wouldn't mind having.


Outtaverse part 4: With a family like this.

Summary: The only thing Tara wants for her birthday is to be human and Xander shows off with super powers that even Angel wouldn't mind having.

Disclamier : I have nightmares about meeting Whedon. Like not really.. but really.

Distribution : Just ask me first, please. I'll probably say yes.

Feedback : Ravage me, baby.

Warning : Rated R for violence, sex and anything else that I stick in and can't be bothered to rate. It's just easier this way.

Authors note: I'd just like to thank Darkest-secret, Ful-of-Faith and most of all Faeries Twilight for their reviews. It means a lot to me. Thanks.

Recap:

Faith stumbled onto the Summer's porch with a mysterious book and fell into another coma. Buffy is currently having comatose Faith living in the spare room in the house.

Giles gleamed magics from the book to locate and contact other champions supposedly like Buffy. Using this knowledge he had Buffy and Willow go to Las Vegas and they brought back a boy named Tell. They also located the Scythe, the same one from the seventh series of BTVS.

Riley left Buffy because he thought she was a lesbian.

Harmony is addicted to the band candy which Ethan Rayne made and it's reverted her personality back a little so she's a bit more like the soulless bitch she was at school. Also, she's doing the dirty with Giles on a regular basis.

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Tara and Willow were lying in each others arms on the floor of their dorm room apartment.

They both looked like they had just gone through a really heavy petting session and the Scythe was laid to the side.

"Oh wow. That was.." Willow said, unsure how to explain it.

"Wow. We did it." Tara said slightly.

"Yeah. That." Willow tittered, "You were.. wow."

"Yeah. You too."

"I feel like I'm floating." Willow said then checked how far she was off the ground, "Nope. I'm not. Just me going crazy."

"For a moment, your hair went blonde." Tara said, her mouth curling slightly.

Willow gave her an odd look, "Really? How did I look?"

"I think I prefer red Willow. Albino Willow was too weird."

"Fine. You've got her." Willow sniggered as she snuggled closer to Tara, her eyes closed in contentment.

"Willow?" Tara asked.

Willow opened her eyes but still had the same content face on her look, "Tara?"

"I love you." Tara said, almost sadly.

"Oh hon, I love you too... Is something wrong?"

"Would you love me if I was in a car accident and my face was broken?"

Willow frowned slightly but then nodded with a grin, knowing that it was true.

"You really would love me, even then?" Tara asked.

"Even then."

"What about if I was evil?"

Willow looked at her oddly then snorted, "Then you wouldn't be you. You're only evil when we're together. Ooh, that's it. That look. Wicked."

Tara's smirk turned to a disgruntled pout, "But what if I turned evil?"

"You mean like a vampire?" Willow asked, "I don't think anyone can tell until it happens. I would try to be strong and do what's right but... I love you. You know?"

Tara smiled weakly, "I can't imagine hurting you. When I try, my brain just shuts down."

Willow blinked her eyes as she tried to stay awake, "I'm sleepy."

"That's because you didn't share the spell like you should have. You took too much on by yourself" Tara said as she tweaked her lover's nose.

"Sorry."

Tara got up and picked Willow up in her arms, then deposited her on the bed. By the time her head hit the bed, Willow was deep asleep.

Tara took Willows slippers off then put Willow under the covers and placed the scythe on the dresser table.

As she was about to put their spell books away, Tara stopped and looked back at Willow to make sure she was asleep.

Biting her bottom lip, Tara singled out Willows personal binder which was where Willow put her favorite spells.

After taking a few magical supplies, Tara left the room quietly and made her away along the dorm to the bathroom.

Once inside she turned on the lights, locked the door and got prepared a magic spell of her own. After placing various candles on the ground, some pots, a map, bits of string, crystals and various other knickknacks, she lit an array of white candles then turned off the lights.

With her back to the white candles she lit a single black candle then she pulled out a ruffled piece of grid paper from a pocket she pressed it out and placed it on the ground next to the candle so its dim light would illuminate it.

With an intent look she smeared dark oil on her forehead to create a symbol that looked like 96, a reverse yin yang.

Reading from the paper, she chanted a spell.

"Zulummar. Sina babi. Parasu tiddu duranki salamu. May one become two."

At first nothing happened and Tara relaxed. Then she groaned lowly as she felt her world become split in two.

It was difficult to maintain, sort of like looking at a magic eye picture but Tara had a lot of practice in focusing her mind. This was just the opposite. It was easy to control once she figured out how to.

With a steady but heavy breath, she turned toward the map she had placed out on the floor.

With one of her voices she spoke while pouring sand from one of her hands, "Thespia, we walk in shadow. We walk in blindness. You are the protector of the night."

So far, so good.

With her other self, she poured sand and spoke.

"Thespia. Goddess. Ruler of darkness. We implore you. Open a window to the world of the underbeing."

That was when her luck ran out and the spell fought back.

Like someone shoved an ice pick up her spine, she gurgled and jerked as her body tried to reject its own soul.

Finally, she slumped to the side as the darkness took her over and sent her to somewhere where her mind didn't matter.

OXOXOX

"And he thought I was gay!" Buffy vented at Tell, "Isn't that the dumbest thing ever?"

Tell frowned and told her "I'm not really the person to talk to about relationships."

Buffy and Tell were walking along a cemetery path at night, not an entirely dissimilar scene to the one from Faith's nightmares.

"Oh. Sorry." Buffy said, much flatter, "You haven't had much luck in love either?"

"No."

Buffy sighed "I guess people like us just aren't meant to have successful love lives."

"I don't think that's correct." Tell told her, "I'm just chaste."

"Chaste as in.."

"I don't burden myself with the trials and tribulations that accompany sexual relations."

"But you can, right?"

"Yes. I'm quite able. I just choose not to."

"Why? Is it a religious thing?"

"No but you could say that I was inspired by religion."

Buffy smiled, "I think I can understand you on that. Once I was seriously thinking about joining a nunnery."

"Wouldn't that get in the road of your duties as the Slayer?"

"Yeah." Buffy sighed then looked around, "Talking of which, where are the vampires tonight?"

"Is Tuesday normally busy?"

"Well no. It's just.. oh. Here we are. Stay behind me, okay?"

Tell looked at her confused as seven vampires sprung from nearby bushes in an ambush set off too early.

Buffy kicked the first one onto his back then brought her leg up and along, clipping another on the chin and knocking them down.

Then the rest tried to dominate her with a flurry of punches. To avoid this, she just pulled one arms flailing out at her and pulled the vampire forward and the vampires found themselves beating on their comrade. While they spread out a little more, Buffy twisted the vampires arm so he was at her mercy with his arm behind her back and she spun out, stretching her reach and staked her first vampire for the night. Then she span back and staked her undead shield.

They moved on her again and one of the vampires on her right was tackled around the head by a flying Tell.

They both hit the ground and rolled. During the roll, the vampires turned to dust and the other vampires looked at Tell as if they didn't see him before.

"Someone kill him." one of the vampires said as they looked at Tell and Buffy staked them while their attention was elsewhere.

That left only one vampire fighting her and two lashing out at Tell. The vampires were pitifully inexperienced and Tell blocked their blows with apparently little difficulty, regardless of the fact that they were attacking him from two sides.

As Buffy watching them fight, she staked her last vampire that tried to get her while her attention was elsewhere then she staked the vampire attacking Tell from behind.

"Thanks." Tell said easily.

The vampire he was fighting got in a lucky hit, a right hook that sent Tell spinning.

On the first rotation, Tell brought out his left hand, the one wearing the spiked gauntlet and clobbered the vampire on the face with a hook of his own.

This caused the vampire to spun too, just half a rotation so it's back was to Tell.

On Tell's second rotation, he righted himself and punched the vampire in the back of the head with his gauntlet. True to his word, the vampire turned to dust.

The entire sequence was a blur, showing that it was a move Tell had practiced and perfected.

"Nice move." Buffy told him.

"Not bad yourself." Tell chuckled, "Normally I'm the one who kills the most demons but I'm not complaining."

"Do you need some ice for your lip?" Buffy asked, "We can go back if you want."

"Nah." Tell dismissed her concern with wiping the blood off from where his lip was split, "I heal fast."

Buffy's brow crinkled and she turned around, looking for something.

"I think we missed one." she told him.

"I don't-UGH!"

Buffy turned around in time to see Tell get smashed through a gravestone as Spike fell out of the sky on him.

Spike chuckled as he got up and greeted Buffy with the biggest grin, "Didn't see that one coming, did you, Slayer?"

"SPIKE! What the hell!" Buffy yelled then frowned, "How come your chip didn't go off?"

Spike gave her a weird look at the chip comment, "Because that wasn't a human, you stupid bint. Couldn't you tell?"

"What do you mean? Tell is human.. uh."

Buffy looked to where Tell was picking himself up, apparently unhurt by Spike's attack.

"Buffy. I'm confused. Isn't that a vampire?" Tell asked her as he flexed his possibly broken arm, "Shouldn't you kill him?"

Buffy stared at him and said "You're not human."

"I never said I was." Tell replied, "Considering that you sought me out I thought you knew."

Spike frowned, "What's going on here?"

"Tell. This is Spike. Spike, Tell."

"He's a vampire." Tell said.

"And he's a demon." Spike told Buffy, "What is this? One bad guy working for you isn't enough?"

"I am not evil." said Tell, obviously offended.

"I didn't know he was a demon." said Buffy, "Giles forgot to mention that."

"He works for you?" Tell asked her, "You employ a vampire?"

"No. The government put a chip in his brain that means he can't hurt humans."

Tell raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

Buffy nodded, "Just wait until you see Harmony. She's another vampire which I'm told I can't stake."

"She's got a chip too?"

"No. She's addicted to this chocolate that reverts her mentally back to before she was bitten." Buffy explained, "At least we think that's what it does.'

"And then there's Angel." Spike added, "He's a vampire who was cursed with a soul by gypsies with a flair for the dramatic. But he left town so you don't have to worry about him. And if you do see him, stake him anyway. Tell him I sent you."

Tell frowned deeply and turned to Buffy.

"You live a very complicated life."

OXOXOX

The next day.

"Look, money!" Anya said gleefully, ruffling money in front of Xander's face.

Xander nodded, "Yes. It's very pretty."

"And it's going to be all mine!" Anya squealed with joy.

"Pardon?" Giles asked her, turning to her.

Anya bashfully put the money back in the cashier, "I meant it will be mine when you pay me with it."

Giles frowned but still nodded then went back to his reading.

It was a lazy early morning at the magic box. Anya and Giles were behind the counter while Xander and Harmony were on the serving side.

"I noticed a distinct lack of Xander at the grand opening." Anya said with a frown, "It was really busy. We could have used your help."

Xander explained himself with an empty handed gesture.

"If I came, I'd just have to do mayor things like shaking hands and kissing babies and I would have to leave just after arriving because the mayor isn't allowed to spend more than half an hour on anything. It makes them look like they've got spare time on their hands."

The doorbell rang as the door swung open, followed by Buffy storming into the store and Tell following quietly behind her.

The first thing Buffy noticed was that Giles wasn't reading the big appendium. He was looking at a copy of "House and Garden" which Harmony was showing him.

Buffy continued to glare at the two of them as she walked up to the counter. Harmony put the magazine away as she backed away from the counter, away from Buffy's reach.

Buffy grabbed Giles by the collar and pulled it back so she could look at his neck.

"Buffy! What are you doing?" Giles demanded to know.

"Checking for bites." she said, shooting dagger eyes at Harmony.

"What!" asked a very confused Giles.

Now that she had their undivided attention, Buffy let his collar go and asked "When were you going to tell me that he's a demon?"

Giles looked up at them confused, "Who?"

"Tell." Buffy said, slowly, as if she was talking to a child.

Giles stared at Tell who was standing behind her.

"He is? Are you sure." Giles asked.

"I'm not evil but I am a demon." Tell told him, "I thought you would knew, considering you sent your charge to acquire my help."

"Really? What type?" Anya chirped, "You know, I used to be a vengeance demon."

Tell frowned at her but replied "An echo."

"Echo?" Buffy asked him, "You're called an echo demon?"

"No. Just an echo. Calling me an echo demon would be like calling you a slayer human or Mr. Giles a store owner human."

"Oh! I've heard of them." Anya said, "I once met one who was a male prostitute."

Tell groaned and ground a knuckle into his forehead, "His name wasn't Twist, was it?"

Anya blinked, "Yeah. It think it was. How did you know?"

"He's my twin brother. You don't see the resemblance?"

Anya looked at Tell then burst out laughing, "Oh wow. I see it NOW. That's crazy."

Buffy coughed, "Your twin brother is a prostitute?"

Tell nodded painfully.

"And how would you know this?" Xander demanded from Anya.

Anya smiled, "It was before I'd even met you. I was invited to this hen party and he was part of the entertainment. There was this.. Hey, Tell, if you're Twist's twin then -"

"NO!" Tell yelled at her, "Don't say it. What you're about to say, do not say that."

Anya looked like she was about to say something else and Tell stopped her with a quick, "No. I know what it is you're about to say and I'm not going to answer so just drop it."

Anya sighed and pouted at Xander, "This is one of those tact things, isn't it?"

Xander frowned, "What was she going to ask?"

"I'm not talking about it." Tell told him, "What that .. What Twist does in his spare time has nothing to do with me."

Anya leant over and whispered into Xander's ears. Everyone watched as his eyes went wide.

"Really?" he asked to which Anya nodded happily.

"It's absolutely amazing!" Anya said out loud, "You'd enjoy it."

Xander gave Anya a look like he had just bitten down on a lemon and shook his head.

Buffy chuckled, "So your twin brother is a sexual freak and you're chaste?"

Tell uncomfortably nodded, "But strangely, we get along just fine. He even helps me fight evil sometimes. Not with the same level of commitment as I have though. He spends too much timing wondering what the enemy would look like naked."

"Twist and Tell?" Giles asked, "Those are slightly odd names."

Tell shrugged slightly, "Our parents were very progressive."

The doorbell rang and Willow came in this time.

"Hey guys. Have you seen Tara?" said Willow as she came in.

"No. She hasn't been in yet." Giles told her as he put his glasses back on after a strenuous cleaning, "We were just discussing how Tell is a demon."

Willow stopped walking then looked at Tell from where she stood, "Really?"

Tell nodded glumly.

"But he's a good one." Buffy said as she hugged Tell around the shoulders which relieved Willow.

"Okay. Well. Good." Willow said then moved on, "Tara wasn't around when I woke up so I thought she might have come here. Oh, and I left. She was probably getting me breakfast."

"Is that the axe?" Buffy asked Willow, looking at the axe shaped object wrapped in a blanket.

Willow nodded and gave it to her.

Buffy quickly took off the blanket, held the axe.

Then she frowned deeply, "Uh. I think you broke it."

"What?" Willow asked, "No. We fixed it. Last night."

"But it's not doing that thing it's supposed to do." Buffy said eloquently.

"May I?" Tell asked, holding his hand out for the scythe.

Buffy huffed and gave it to him.

After a few seconds of holding it he said "It's working just fine now."

"Then why isn't it working?" Buffy asked him.

Tell shrugged, "I don't exactly know what it does. Only that it is in working order."

"Umm. Giles. What's it do?" Buffy asked her watcher.

Giles looked confused at the question, "I haven't read anything yet that states that it is more than a weapon."

"Oh. It's more than a weapon." Willow told Giles, "Last night, when we unbound it, wow. You wouldn't believe how much energy that thing has. My hair went blonde when we did it."

Buffy looked at Willow's hair, "I can't picture it."

Willow chuckled, "Tara said it didn't suit me."

"Maybe if you dyed it darker. That would really work for you." Harmony suggested.

"You think so?" Willow asked.

Harmony nodded, "It would lend you a more proactive aspect. Of course, you'd need new clothes to match. I can help you pick them out."

The doorbell rang and Willow turned to it expectantly but found a gentleman wearing an impeccable suit and a teenage girl with dark brown hair and confidence rolling off her in waves. She really looked like she didn't want to be there. Something about her hit a chord with Willow, something that made her look twice.

"Giles, customers." Willow said, not taking her eyes off the girl.

The man's eyes lit up at Giles name as looked behind the counter to where Giles was and walked towards them.

"Rupert Giles, I presume?" he asked, "Michael Armitage and this is my charge, Kennedy."

"Oh,. the new girl." Buffy said as she looked Kennedy over, "The councils best and brightest. Kinsley mentioned her before."

"So that's what I saw." Willow said to Kennedy, "I knew there was something special about you."

"This is a waste of time." Kennedy told her watcher, "Why do we have to talk to them?"

"She's a slayer too?" Harmony asked, slowly moving backwards to hide behind Giles.

Kennedy frowned, "What's it with her?"

"She's a vampire." Buffy explained, "Vampire slayers tend to make her antsy. Go figure."

Kennedy pulled out a stake from under her jacket, "I'm going to make her more than just antsy. I'm shooting for dusty."

But before she could move, Buffy held her stake hand by the wrist. Kennedy tried to shake her off but found it harder than expected.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this but you can't stake Harmony." Buffy said with a bitter taste in her mouth, "She's our comedy relief."

"Hey!" Xander and Harmony said at the same time.

"See. Funny." Buffy said with a grin, "By the way, I'm Buffy. I'm the older and vastly more experienced slayer."

Kennedy snarled at Buffy then pulled back with her arm so hard that she threw Buffy off her and across the floor.

Tell placed the scythe on the table then intercepted Kennedy by standing in front of her.

"You want some too?" She asked looking down on him.

Tell didn't let any fear show on his face but by the way he was moving slowly back you could tell he didn't want a confrontation.

He didn't get one either as Buffy grabbed Kennedy from behind and threw her to the ground onto her stomach and pulled one of her arms behind her back for leverage to keep her there.

"Just cool down!" Buffy told her, "You're in my town. You obey my rules. Have you got that!"

Her watcher started to move in to help but was blocked by Xander who was grimly shaking his head.

"Screw you, vamp lover." Kennedy wheezed as she struggled to shake Buffy off.

"Vamp lover!" Buffy asked then turned to her watcher, "What did you tell this girl about me?"

"The truth." replied the watcher.

"You told her about Angel, didn't you?" Buffy asked, "Did you forget to mention the part where he has a soul?"

"Vampires don't have souls. Everyone knows that." Kennedy laughed in spite of her compromising position.

Buffy sighed, "No wonder she doesn't like me."

"I hate you because you turned your back on the light." Kennedy spat then added as an afterthought, "Bitch."

Leaning back to straddle Kennedy in a more comfortable position, Buffy settled in for what looked like a long conversation.

"Why whatever do you mean?" Buffy asked lightly.

Kennedy gave her a confused look, "You quit being a slayer."

"No, I didn't. I just quit the council."

"It's one in the same." Kennedy argued.

"It really isn't. You have no idea what the council did to me." Buffy told her then turned to her watcher, "Should I tell her? Or will you keep her on a leash?"

"Kennedy. That's enough!" Michael said like a parent scolding his child.

"What!" Kennedy asked, staring at her watcher like he just said the world was actually flat.

"You can get off her, Miss Summers. She won't cause any problems for you." said the active Watcher.

Looking at him in disbelief, Kennedy cried "You're just letting them keep a vampire alive just like that? Why!"

"We're not here for petty squabbles but to stop an apocalypse."

Everyone groaned and Willow said "There's that word again."

Buffy got off Kennedy and they both dusted themselves off.

"What is this time?" Buffy asked, "And please include the parts where you tell me how to stop it now as opposed to later when it's too late."

Michael Armitage puffed himself up as Kennedy fell along side next to him and he spoke in the way that watchers unused to field work spoke, "Unbeknownst to you all, there is an ancient cult of vampires in town that call themselves the seekers of Azaroth-"

"Oh, we know them!" Anya interrupted him, "They're dead. Xander killed them all yesterday."

Xander blinked, "Those guys with the robes? Hey yeah. I did, didn't I? Yay me!"

"Now is not the time for jokes, boy." the watcher said in a completely condescending tone.

Xander straightened his tie casually and said "I wasn't joking and I would prefer that you didn't call me boy."

Narrowing his eyes at Xander, Michael asked "And just who are you?"

"Alexander Harris." Xander said in an official capacity, "The Mayor of Sunnydale."

Mayor definitely had a capital M in that sentence. He said it the same way he would say Slayer.

"Actually, those Azaroth vampires have been popping up for about a month now." Buffy said, "A few here, a few there. Really annoying but we didn't know anything about them until they kidnapped Anya."

"And Xander saved me." Anya added, "Isn't that so romantic?"

"You didn't help him fight?" Kennedy asked, appalled at Buffy.

"I didn't know. He didn't ask me to. I was out of town on business."

"Business?" Michael asked, "What business could you have that could sway you from your duty to Sunnydale?"

"So now I am a slayer?" Buffy chuckled, "And I was only away for half a day. Just a quick trip to Las Vegas to pick up Tell here."

Buffy patted Tell on the shoulder to indicate who she meant.

"And why would you need to go personally?" Michael argued.

Tell cleared his throat with a cough and came to Buffy's defense, "At the time I was helping a hotel with a particularly ruthless demon mafia. Although the situation was dealt with before Buffy's arrival, there was a distinct possibility that it wouldn't be so. If that was the case, her intervention would have been invaluable."

"Are you sure the seekers are completely destroyed?" Michael asked, "If not, they could replenish their numbers in time. Possibly even by recruiting already turned vampires into their ranks."

"That normally doesn't work so well. You really want to turn your own minions personally." Harmony said then shut up at everyone's look.

Anya frowned, "Xander didn't kill them all. They had three or four scouting the sewers in case someone came up behind them."

"How many did he actually get?" Kennedy asked, looking Xander over.

"Thirteen." Anya said proudly, "You should have seen him. He was amazing."

"You're telling me he killed thirteen vampires?" Kennedy asked incredulously, pointing at Xander.

"I had help." Xander admitted "Uh. Anya was there too. She wasn't even tied up."

"Amateurs" Harmony mumbled, getting a glare from Buffy.

"We must totally eradicate the rest of the seekers." Michael Armitage told them, "If they succeed in capturing Buffy, they could end the reign of mankind."

"Me?" Buffy asked, "Why would they want to capture me?"

"Since Faith has passed on, we believe that you are their next target." Michael explained, "There's no other reason for them to come to Sunnydale in such force."

"You're saying these are the guys are after a slayer?" Xander asked, "How would that help them wreck the world?"

Michael sighed, "The Azaroth the seekers refer to is not the usual Azaroth. It turns out that it's a common name in some circles. The legends go that this Azaroth was one of the first humans to be imbued with supernatural powers. After which, he was charged with fighting the evils of the world."

"So he was like a slayer?" Buffy asked.

"No. His powers were .. actually, we don't know what powers he had. It's hard to distinguish the fact from fiction. Suffice to say, he was very powerful. Even more so than a slayer."

"And what does this have to do with us?" Anya asked.

Michael sighed at the interruption but continued, "One of the few pieces of information we know about Azaroth was that at the end of his life he turned completely evil. Now, ordinarily his powers were beyond the ministrations of magic, they were so powerful. But as he descended into iniquity his powers became malleable to the forces of darkness. He was killed and his powers were stolen to create the artifact known as the word of Azaroth."

"And?" Anya asked.

Michael glared at her for a second before finishing his speech.

"After his death, records of what happened to the word were flimsy at best but it is commonly thought the word was used to empower the line of slayers, in that it actually became a part of them and is still trapped within them. This might quite possibly be the truth since the some of the same scholars which originally chronicled Azaroth's reign also chronicled the birth of the slayers. So it's quite possible that his powers were stolen with the idea of empowering a more worthy host. Because of this there is a theory that if you can get a slayer than has turned away from the light, you can extract Azaroth's power from them with the right magics."

"And you think they're after me?" Buffy asked, "I haven't turned away from the light, you nincompoop!"

"And yet they are still here." Michael said coldly, "That is why Kennedy and I are here to save you."

"Save me?" Buffy gasped, "I can save myself!"

Giles put a calming hand on Buffy's shoulder. As she looked up to him, he said "Buffy. Regardless of how you feel about it, they could be very useful in dealing with this vampire cult."

Buffy sighed, "You're right. It'd be stupid to turn down a slayer. Even a stupid one."

"Also. I'm sure you're intrigued by the idea of a precursor to the slayers." Giles half-asked.

"I guess." Buffy conceded, "So, Watcher types go brainstorm. I'll try bonding with my sister Slayer and... Harmony?"

Harmony's eyes widened slightly, "Yes?"

"Do you think you could go out and find something on these seekers for me? Before the vampires go to sleep? You've still got some underground connections, don't you?"

Harmony frowned, "I don't know. That could be dangerous."

"I could go with you for added protection." Tell told her, "No one knows me in Sunnydale yet."

Kennedy objected with "Uhhh."

"Demon." Buffy filled her in, "Don't worry. He's good."

"Are you sure about that?" Kenned asked, "I mean the demon part. He doesn't look like one."

Buffy nodded, "Yes. I am. Now let's leave them to it and go have some java at the coffee shop down the street."

"You paying?" Kennedy asked hopefully.

"Sure." Buffy said, now with Kennedy following her but she turned back as she noticed her watcher following her too and she told him "Sorry, Michael. Girl talk time. But don't feel left out. You can guy talk with Giles."

Michael frowned as he watched his charge walk out with the next best thing to the enemy.

"Do you usually get vampires to do your work for you?" Kennedy asked, more receptive than she was before.

"I do most of the actual slaying myself but they're good for gossip. Spike isn't bad in a fight too."

"Spike. That's the other one."

Buffy nodded, "He's ... colorful."

"And the demon? Where did you get him from?"

Buffy smiled, "That's a long boring story."

Kennedy stopped walking and asked Buffy, "Isn't the coffee shop this way?"

Buffy nodded, "We're not going to the coffee shop."

"We aren't?" Kennedy asked, becoming guarded.

"No. I'm going to show you something first."

"What?"

"It's a surprise."

"What is it?"

Buffy blinked at her, "You do know what a surprise is, right?"

"Come on. Just tell me."

Buffy sighed, "I can't show you what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

Kennedy frowned but followed her anyway.

OXOXOX

A few minutes later

Tell staked Harmony's vampire contact in the back.

"Hey!" Harmony yelled at him, "You don't just run around staking people!"

"I do." Tell said calmly as he pulled out a small knife from somewhere.

Harmony stared at the knife and backed off, "Hey. If you hurt me the slayer will get you."

Tell rolled his eyes, "You can't hear that?"

"Hear what?"

He strode through the sewer lair towards a large wardrobe that wasn't part of the original furniture.

With considerable effort, he wrenched the lock off and the doors flew open as a bound and gagged boy fell through.

Tell knelt down and cut the rope around his ankles and wrists then stood back to let the captive take care of his own gag.

The first words out of his mouth were "Thank god you came along. I thought that crazy person was going to leave me in there to die."

"She won't bother you anymore." Tell told the poor kid then said "The exit is that way."

The boy blinked at him and Harmony then asked "You're not the police, are you?"

"If we said no would you care?" Tell asked him then turned to leave.

"Hey!" the kid called after them as they both walked along the sewers, "Who are you? What's your name?"

"Go home, kid." Tell called back without looking.

"Hi. My name's Harmony and oi!-"

Harmony was cut off as Tell pulled her through a door that led deeper into the sewers and closed the door behind her.

OXOXOX

Summers household.

"Mom!" Buffy called as she and Kennedy walked in the front door, "I brought home a friend. I want you to meet them."

Like magic, Dawn appeared next to the both, surprising Kennedy.

"Hi!" Dawn said hyperactively, "I'm Dawn. Buffy's more mature sister. I'm taller too."

"Have you been drinking coffee again?" Buffy asked.

"I can if I want to."

Joyce came down the stairs smiling, "Hello. I'm Joyce, Buffy's mother."

Buffy grinned, "Hey mom. Check it out. Kennedy here is a slayer."

Joyce smiled even bigger, "Really? Well, that's wonderful. Are you going to stay in town long?"

Kennedy did a double take, "No. I'm just here for a few days."

"I think the watchers think I'm a bad influence on her." Buffy joked.

"You are." Dawn said, getting a glare from her sister, "You borrow my CD's but don't let me borrow your leather pants. That's just evil."

"Ignore her." Buffy suggested.

"And you stake me with carrot sticks. Your own sister." Dawn said woefully, getting a chuckle from Kennedy.

"I'm here to show her upstairs." Buffy said with emphasis on upstairs.

"Arr." Joyce said in realization, "Kennedy was it? Would you like some tea?"

"Coffee if you have it." Kennedy replied.

"Of course." Joyce said then shuffled off to the kitchen to get that.

Buffy then walked up the stairs, followed by Kennedy and walked straight into the room with Faith in.

As soon as she saw Faith hooked up to an IV and various machines, Kennedy stopped.

"What's this?" she asked.

"The real reason the seekers are in town."

Kennedy looked at Buffy with total incomprehension.

Buffy sighed, "It's Faith."

"Faith is dead."

Buffy shook her head, "She's just in a coma."

"So why do you have her?"

"Because she's got nowhere else to go." Buffy explained then added "You actually remind me a lot of her."

"Hey. I'm not evil. She's evil."

"You remind of what she used to be like. What she was like when she was my friend."

"Oh." Kennedy said then asked "She was your friend? What happened?"

Buffy sat down at the desk and smoothed some of Faith's hair, "It all started when she accidentally killed someone. Maybe she got a taste for being evil or maybe we just pushed her away. Before that happened, we were friends. Afterwards, I still had my friends and she didn't have anyone. We were just so young and didn't know any better."

"It doesn't excuse what she did." Kennedy said coldly.

"No. It doesn't." Buffy replied, "But what would you have me do? Put her in a hospital so the bad guys can pick her up?"

"You should give her to the council. They can take care of her."

"They'll kill her." Buffy stated as fact, "And before you interrupt me, I know this from experience. Faith here has grown a bad habit of swapping bodies with people. She did it with me when she woke up the first time. After she knocked me out with my own fist, the watchers caught me and tried to execute me while I was helpless."

Kennedy looked at Buffy skeptically, "They wouldn't do that."

"Why not?" Buffy asked, "The watchers are only interested in the greatest good and which would be the greatest good? Keeping a bad slayer alive or killing her and getting a brand new one to fight evil?"

Kennedy frowned but conceded, "Okay. That does make some sense but now that I'm a slayer so they wouldn't have any reason to kill her."

Buffy shrugged, "If it's all the same to you, would you keep this to yourself? I don't want to run that risk."

"You're harboring a monster."

"She doesn't look like a monster." Buffy said calmly.

"Vampires don't either until the do that.. thing they do."

"We call it a game face." Buffy told her, "But hey, that-thing-they-do is catchy."

Kennedy frowned at her, "Don't avoid the topic."

Buffy sighed, "Kennedy. Here's the thing. When Faith went evil, it's because we abandoned her. I'm not going to do that again. You can call me insane if you want but I am NOT killing her."

Kennedy didn't look very happy about this but said "Okay."

"Okay? Okay what?"

"Okay, I won't tell my watcher about her. But if she slits your throat in your sleep, don't come crying to me."

Buffy smiled, "Thanks."

Joyce opened the door and came in with coffee for Buffy and Kennedy then left quickly.

"Your family seems nice." Kennedy said.

"Yeah, I don't know what I'd do without my mom." Buffy smiled slightly, "But if you want my sister, maybe we can talk numbers. I'll give you a slayer discount."

This got a chuckle from Kennedy which made Buffy smile more.

"Oh." Buffy said, remembering something, "Something you might be interested in knowing. Xander wasn't the person who rescued Anya from the seekers of Azawhatsit. Faith did."

"That's how she put herself into a coma?" Kennedy asked, "Because I could take thirteen vampires."

Buffy shook her head, "No. Xander did this spell which made Faith jump into his body. Then he somehow convinced her to go fight the vampires."

Kennedy gave her a weird look, "She still had her slayer powers in someone else's body? That doesn't work. Does it?"

"Apparently it can."

They both took some time to sip their coffee until Kennedy said "She doesn't look that evil when she's asleep."

"It's funny. When she was in the hospital the first time, I only visited her once." Buffy said, "It was after she sent me a vision on how to take down the mayor."

"The snake guy?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "You know about that."

"Michael gave me some reading material to read on the flight over."

"I bet he did." Buffy said grimly.

"So she sent you a vision? How did she do that?"

Buffy shrugged, "I've been vision girl since I became the slayer. I've gotten tons of them, which is strange. I don't even know if Faith or .. or before her, Kendra. I don't know if they ever had them."

"Besides the usual nightmares, I haven't had any either." Kennedy added, "Not every slayer gets every power. If you've read through the diaries you would know that."

"Okay. Scratch the part where I said you reminded me of Faith because there's no way she would rag on me for lacking in academics."

Kennedy frowned, "You say she sent you a vision on how to defeat the mayor but when she came out of the coma, didn't she go back to being evil?"

Buffy shrugged, "I don't get that either. I asked Giles about it and he said that in our dreams we show our true selves but the waking world is a construct of lies and complicity. I don't know if that's true but.. I really wanted her back in my life."

"Maybe when she helped Xander, it was like that. But when she wakes up again, she'll go back to her normal self."

Buffy looked down at the floor, "I don't know. I don't know why we feel the way we do. I don't know why I can't just forget the past and forgive her but.. All I know is I can't kill her. Beyond that, I don't care."

"Fine. You don't need to convince me anymore. It's your life you're playing with."

"Thanks."

"It's just somewhere between the magic shop and your house, I've grown to care for your safety." Kennedy smirked.

"Me too." Buffy chuckled, "So, how old are you anyway? You seem a little older than the usual new recruit."

"You noticed that? I'm Sixteen."

"I was fifteen when I was called."

Kennedy shrugged, "I think they had given up on my being a slayer since they had started me on watcher training."

Buffy blinked, "You were raised by the watchers before you became a slayer? I couldn't tell."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing it's just.. Did you ever meet Kendra? She was such a robot. No hugging, no talking to boys, no therapy shopping. I still loved her but she was really high strung. You on the other hand, you seem almost normal."

"Just almost?" Kennedy laughed, "Don't tell my watcher this but I just put on an act when they're around. The shy and reserved girl who always asks permission for everything. Most of the potentials do it but really we get up to all sorts of mischief. Every second Wednesday of the month, Laurie, an ex-potential slayer, she'd sneak in with junk food and we'd spend the night watching movies."

"Every second Wednesday? Yeah. That's really acting out." Buffy smirked, "So you were going to be a watcher for an actual slayer?"

Kennedy shook her head, "No. They don't let the potential slayers do that anymore. In the past it was found that potentials would try to live through their charges and get uh, slayer envy."

Buffy chuckled, "But isn't that normal for most watchers?"

Kennedy coughed to stop herself laughing, "Not when the watcher tries to kill the slayer for being chosen."

"Oh-key. That's more than a little creepy." Buffy admitted.

"Which is why they don't allow that anymore." Kennedy said, looking into her empty cup with a frown, "I should have told your mother to leave the pot."

Buffy chuckled evilly.

"What?" Kennedy asked her.

"I just realized. It's the second Wednesday of the month. Want to go act out?"

"No it isn't."

Buffy took out a wad of cash from her wallet and showed to Kennedy who was hypnotized by it.

"Yes it is. Let's go shopping!" Buffy said gleefully, "This'll be so much fun. We can go shopping, get a manicure, maybe a spa. Then later we can go slay some vampires."

"You're paying?"

"Of course."

"Then I like how you think."

OXOXOX

"HEY!" A voice yelled, followed by a banging, "Is anyone in there?"

Tara forced her eyes open. The bathroom was now sunlit and it was obviously well past morning.

Slowly, because that's the only way she could do it, she rolled over and onto her hands.

As the world swam back into focus, she noticed that the map on the floor was glowing. Each sparkle representing a demonic energy. The map of Sunnydale appeared to be taken over by a swarm of incandescent ants. Some of them appeared to be moving slowly but most were idle.

Shaking her head clear, she located her own position in the dormitory.

Her breath caught in her throat as she realized that she didn't show up.

"I can hear you in there." The angry voice said from outside.

"Just a minute." Tara told them, taking another look at the map to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

"Just a minute?" A different voice asked, "You've been in there all morning."

"Sorry. I... I slipped and hit my head." Tara said while shoving her equipment into her "bathroom" bag.

Then she unlocked the door and walked into the hallway, into a small crowd waiting for the showers.

"What were you doing in there?" one girl asked, "And why do you smell funny?"

"I-I hit my head." Tara mumbled, turning away from them and heading for her room.

Once inside she collapsed against the shut door as tears sprung to her eyes. They were tears of relief, of joy and maybe just a little bit of anger.

That was when she noticed the Scythe was lying bare on the bed and there was a post-it note attached to it.

She got up and picked the weapon up and pull the post-it note off it to read it..

"Tara. I haven't found you yet. Call me. Willow."

She turned to the phone and thought about using it but something caught her attention from outside.

Slowly, she walked towards the window and looked out it then gasped and slammed herself against the ground to hide from it.

"Oh god. Not now." she said to herself, "Why now?"

Moving quickly, she pulled a suitcase out from under her bed and opened it. She threw the scythe in, some clothes and her bathroom bag then closed it and ran out of the room.

OXOXOX

Tell got the wind knocked out of him as two of the vampires pushed him to the floor of the sunken church.

He struggled but he wasn't nearly strong enough to break free.

Harmony wasn't having a good time of it either. She had been pretty ineffectual as a fighter and much to her dismay she was currently being held in place against the wall by two guys who were much larger vampires than she was.

The four vampires that had captured them were the same four Tell was told about by Harmony's contact in the sewers. There were three guys and one chubby girl vamp.

"What do we have here?" the girl in charge said, "It's not bad enough that the good guys are turning vampires against each other but now they've got their own little demon. But that's okay. After tonight we don't have to worry about that anymore."

"Why? What happens tonight?" Tell asked from where he was face down against the floor.

"Tonight, once the slayer the slayer is ours, we'll summon the Seeker. The Seeker will come and then it's all over. Not just Sunnydale but the world. We'll walk amongst the gods."

"You won't get near her." Tell told her.

The vampire laughed, "Oh man. You must be new. You haven't heard, have you?"

"Heard what?"

"What do you think this is? A James bond movie?" The girl laughed, "No. This is reality where you're going to die a painful, sweaty death."

Tell didn't reply, he just glared back at her.

"Okay. Flip him over. I've got an idea." she told her minion.

The minion smiled and helped her turn Tell over so she was straddling him. Opening up his trench coat, she pulled out a stake.

"lookie lookie. A sharp piece of wood." the girl said, waving the stake in front of his face, "What should I do with this?"

"Shove it where the sun doesn't shine." Tell told her, "Get it? It's funny."

The girl laughed at the joke then shoved the stake straight through his hand into the hardwood floor.

To his credit, he didn't cry out but it was obviously a struggle for him not to.

She pulled out another stake and gave it to her minion, "Here. You can do the other one."

The vampiress held his head straight up and looked him in the eyes and when the minion staked his other hand, she moaned as he whimpered in pain.

"Oh god. You're making me so wet." she said as she bit her bottom lip, her fang breaking the skin so that a trickle of blood fell down her chin to land on his face.

"I wasn't this big when I was turned." the vampiress explained to Tell, "Since I became a vampire my diet went straight out the window and I've loved every second of it. I'm still sexy though, aren't I?"

Tell shrugged, "Sure."

Turning to the minion she dismissed him, "Go have fun with the traitor. This one's mine."

"Let me go." Harmony whined as she struggled.

"Man. Let's just stake her. She's getting on my nerves." the brute on her left said.

"No. Don't stake her." cried the minion who had just staked Tell's hand to the floor, "I've been wanting a piece of that ass since second grade."

"Do you think it's safe to?" The vampire on the right asked.

The staker looked at him oddly, "What do you mean?"

"That's how she caught it."

"Caught what?" the staker asked.

"Her soul."

The staker looked at him weirdly, "Huh?"

"Think about it. Spike gets a soul then does Harmony and then Harmony has one?"

"So how did Spike get it?" the vamp on Harmony's left asked.

"Angel. His sire." the one of her right said, "She's got a soul too."

"Angel was a guy, numb nuts." Harmony told him.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Angel is obviously a girl's name." the staker said as he unbuckled his belt, "You two keep holding her, I'm going in."

"Why do you get to go first?" the one on her left asked, "I caught her."

"Because I'm bigger than you." the staker said then fell over in pain as a knife lodged itself in his back.

"That's what I hate about the youth of today. They're so preoccupied with themselves that they don't notice anyone else." Tell said, now standing with his mouth and shirt covered in blood. The two stakes that had nailed him to the floor were now being wielded in his hands.

"What did you do to Monica?" The vampire on the right asked.

"I ate her." Tell grinned ferally, "Her larynx to be more precise."

"You're dead, motherfucker!" said the minion as he pulled the throwing knife out of his back and started wielding it drunkenly.

"You'd be happy to know that if you were human, you wouldn't be able to walk at all." Tell informed the vampire who just got even more enraged by this and took a swipe at him.

Tell dodged back easily then came forwards and kicked him cleanly on the chin with a steel toed shoe.

This dazed the vampire but he came back with another swing and Tell rushed forwards, pushing forwards on the vampire as he pushed a stake into his heart.

As they turned to dust, Tell ran through the disintegrating vampire and brought his stake down on another vampires head but that vampire deflected the stake as he let go of Harmony. But this was just a feint and the vampire realized this too late as Tell brought the stake in his other hand up and into it's heart.

The only remaining vampire pushed Harmony towards Tell but he dodged her and stabbed him in the eye with a stake. As the vampire weakly tried to pull it out, Tell staked it's heart and put it out of it's misery.

OXOXOX

Magic box.

"So, do all these books do spells? Like turn people into frogs?" Some guy asked, looking at the books Giles put on the table.

Michael Armitage sighed as he looked through a book, "And this is why the council doesn't conduct it's business in magic stores."

Giles hemmed, catching the boys attention, "If you're truly after a book to turn someone into a frog, may I suggest the books that are for sale over there."

Armitage lowered his book and looked levelly at Giles, "You don't actually sell anything like that, do you?"

"Magic. Shop." Giles said the two words very separately, "A shop which sells magic. It is a simple concept."

"So are you two both witches?" The boy asked, finding it incredibly funny, "Hey. Don't do a spell on me now."

"Is there something I can help you with?" Giles asked.

"Nah. I'm just looking." he said, still sifting through the books on the table.

Giles was about to say something but was interrupted by the door to the training room opening and a crying, sobbing Harmony coming out and hugging him like someone drowning would hug a life preserver

"Harmony, what happened?" Giles asked, the concern evident in his voice.

"They were going to rape me but Tell saved me. I was so scared." Harmony sobbed.

Giles looked to where Tell was standing in the doorway, with red patches over his his shirt and his trenchcoat.

"What the hell happened to you?" the teenager asked.

"Muggers." Tell said, holding up a hand which had a clean hole through it and then asked Giles, "Can I tend to my wounds in the training room?"

"Of course." Giles said dismissively and Tell slipped back through the door.

"Whoa. I'd heard California had problems with crime but that's insane. He had a hole through his hand." The boy said, "Shouldn't you call him an ambulance?"

"Anya. Why don't you check on Tell's condition?" Giles called to her.

Anya already had the first aid trauma kit out and smiled, "Yes, employer. I will go do that."

"Here. Have some chocolate." Giles said, giving Harmony a bar of Willows vampcandy and petting her head. She quickly let him to go eat it with glee.

"What about the police?" The guy asked, looking at Harmony weirdly.

"I think you'll find that they won't be of any use in this." Giles told him, "But thank you for your concern."

The doorbell rang and two more people walked into the store. A girl and a much older man.

"Dad. You just missed seeing this guy who had a hole through his hand. It was gross." The boy said enthusiastically.

His Father raised an eyebrow at him and walked into the room as if he was above it.

"Hello. Are the owner of this store?" the man asked politely.

"Yes. Yes, I am." Giles said, still with Harmony wrapped around him, "Can I do something for you?"

"Maybe you can help me. I'm looking for my daughter. She's called Tara Maclay. I was told she frequents your store quite often."

Giles nodded, "Tara. Yes, of course. I know her quite well. She's a, um, friend of Willow's. Have you checked her dormitory? I can give you the address."

"Yes, we did. She wasn't there." Mr Maclay said, frowning, "Normally, I wouldn't say anything but considering where you work I believe you could understand why we must find Tara before nightfall."

Giles looked at him in confusion and Harmony even looked away from her chocolate as she became interested too.

"Why is that?" Giles asked.

"It's a family curse. On her twentieth birthday, her demon half will take over. That's why we're here. To bring her home where we can control it and care for her."

At Gile's look of surprise, Maclay said "Ahh. I see she neglected to tell you."

OXOXOX

Bus station bathroom.

Tara looked at herself in the mirror.

She had spent the time to clean herself up but she still looked horrible.

She was wondering why she's been hiding in bathrooms recently.

The last time she did that was when she lived in the family home, when she hiding from the screams.

Pain from her childhood memories pooled up inside her and turned red hot, fueling her with rage.

With a scream, she punched the mirror in front of her and broke it into fifty pieces.

"Where did that come from?" Tara asked her broken reflection, "Maybe I really am turning."

Closing her eyes for a second, her rage came back and she turned to leave the bathroom.

Her decision had been made.

No one was going to take her home.

"It ends now."

OXOXOX

The Magic box.

Buffy, Kennedy and Xander had found their way back to the magic box along with Willow who was just catching up on the Maclay's family curse.

"She's a demon?" Willow asked in confusion, "Since when?"

"Since birth apparently." Giles told her then gestured towards the three people Willow didn't know and said "These are her family."

"But she.. She doesn't have any demon bits." Willow said timidly, "And I don't think her face is glued on or her toenail clippings keep growing after they're cut."

"It does explain why she would come here. Her demon half might be attracted to the hellmouth." Armitage theorised.

Willow squinted at Michael and asked "And who are you?"

"Michael Armitage, Watcher."

Willow didn't reply, she just stared blankly at the table.

"What was that thing you said before?" asked Donny, Tara's brother, "The hellmouth? What's that?"

"The hellmouth. You haven't heard of it?" Giles asked, "Sunnydale was founded upon a convergence of mystical energies which we call the hellmouth. It attracts all sorts of demons to it."

"And you.. You choose to live here?" asked Beth, Tara's cousin.

"Someone's got to keep an eye on the demon population." Buffy told her.

Xander smiled crookedly, "Consider us the neighborhood watch."

Willow frowned, "That can't be. I know she's been acting different lately but.. she's not a demon."

"I'm sorry. She is." The eldest Maclay told her.

"Keep it together, Will." Buffy told her friend, "We'll find Tara and reverse this."

"You can't." Mr Maclay said sternly, "Magic is what caused this in the first place. The curse can't be broken."

"Do you know if it's a vengeance curse?" Anya asked, "Because I might be able to ask a few favors and get it removed."

Seeing that Willow was turning inwards on herself, Xander put his hand over hers to comfort her, "We'll work this out. It's not like we all haven't dated our fair share of demons. It's one of the pitfalls of living in Sunnydale. Sometimes it works out."

The doorbell rang and Tara stormed in, wielding the blood red scythe and a fierce look in her eyes.

"Dad. You can't scare me anymore." she said angrily, her entrance stunning everyone.

"Tara. Why do you have an axe?" Mr Maclay asked, worried.

Tara looked down at the axe which she held in her right hand then placed it on a nearby shelf. The interruption had ruined her focus and now she was starting to shrink in on herself again.

Standing up, Maclay's confidence in handling his daughter came back and he said "We've come to take you home."

"No." Tara told them.

"But your twentieth birthday is tomorrow. I don't think your friends will want you around when that happens. In fact, I've gotten the impression that they kill demons."

Tara shook her head, "You can't fool me anymore. I know I'm not a demon and if I was, I'd rather live in the sewers with the rest of them than go home with you. Or I could just move to LA. They're pretty progressive there."

The Maclays stared at Tara, unsure what to say and Tara just keeping digging into them.

"The more I think about it, the less sense you make. Like, why did you even have Donny? If you knew I came out wrong why would you have more kids who could turn out to be evil demon spawn. Do you see what I mean? It makes no sense."

"Bobby is a man. You know only the maternal side is effected." her Father explained.

"So? It's a coin toss whether he would come out female or male. Were you just playing the lottery with our lives?"

"We didn't know you had a demon half until you were five and the signs began." Her father explained and Tara just rolled her eyes at him.

"Signs?" Willow asked, "What signs."

"Magic." her father said grimly, "Her demon side gives her the ability to perform magic."

"See what I mean?" Tara asked her friends, "I've really been racking my brains trying to figure out why they all lied to me since birth."

"Now you'll listen to me here, young lady. We haven't been lying to -"

Tara cut of her Father's dialogue by hitting him across the jaw with a tight right hook that knocked him over.

"Tara!" Donny yelled, "Have you gone insane!"

Tara rubbed her sore hand and said "I don't know. Want to find out?"

"He's right, Tara." Xander cut in, "If you wanted someone to punch your ass of a dad. You should have come to me."

Donny rushed his sister but Buffy held him by the back of his collar, making him gag and fall to the ground too.

A smoking black blanket rustled into the magic box from the front door and said in a despicable English accent "Time to get on your bother boots on people because.. Hey, what's all this then?"

The latter part Spike said after he had removed the blanket and took an actual look at the situation.

"Tara's family." Buffy explained, "They were just leaving."

"We're not leaving without Tara." Maclay said as he got off the floor.

Buffy sighed and picked up the scythe, "Then I guess you're not leaving. So Giles, what will we do with the bodies? Black sacks in the dumpster or toss them off the bridge?"

Giles shook his head casually, "I think I'll use them to fertilize my new line of roses that I've just imported."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "You garden?"

"I picked it up during my blue period." Giles said as if he meant it.

Maclay scowled, "You're beyond hope now, Tara. Don't expect our help when your friends throw you out into the cold."

"Dad. Just go." Tara said tiredly.

Beth shot her one last venomous look and then they turned and left, not looking back.

"So your family, they're.." Willow said eloquently.

"Yeah." Tara agreed, "Can we talk about it later?"

Willow nodded and everyone dropped the topic except Spike.

"A nice family like that is good for the character." Spike grinned at Tara, "See. You turned out just fine, didn't ya?"

"Spike. What was that non sequitur about bother boots before?" Giles asked him.

"Hmm? Oh yes. THAT!" Spike said, now grinning like an idiot, "Turns out that Buffy's number is finally up. I just swung by to warn her and maybe gloat a little. So who are the newbies?"

Buffy introduced them, "This is Armitage, Watcher and Kennedy, a Slayer."

Spike dropped his jovial mood instantly and asked "Did you tell her about the non-staking policy we have?"

Buffy chuckled, "Spike. I wouldn't call it a policy. I'd call it you skating on thin ice."

"That's Spike?" Kennedy asked, "I was expecting someone taller."

Spike guffawed, "Hey. I'm big where it counts, luv. Go tell her, Harm."

Harm frowned, "Leave me out of this, you freak."

"If I might be so bold, while you're still holding a large weapon." Michael interrupted them, "Buffy, you shouldn't be flaunting your slayer powers like that."

"Huh?" Buffy asked him, "I wasn't flaunting my slayer powers. Anyone can act like a crazy Satanist that likes to hack people up. Nothing super powered about that."

Spike frowned, "I missed something, didn't I? Come on, cough up the gory details."

"You people are insane." Kennedy told them, "Totally avoiding the fact that this vampire said Buffy is going to die."

"Not by me." Spike told her, "Just wanted to clarify that."

"So who's it this time?" Buffy asked.

"Uh. Everyone." Spike admitted, "Almost everyone. Everyone evil. Almost."

"Huh?" Buffy asked, giving him a weird look.

Spike sighed, "It's this guy called Doc. Real popular bloke. This is the first time I've heard of him doing anything political though. Didn't think he was the type. He's pulled in some markers and is having half of Sunnydale's underground to meet at deadmans bluff tonight."

Buffy sighed, "Great. I was hoping to get ripped into itty bitty pieces next week."

"Oh. They're not going to kill you." Spike told her, "He wants you alive for.. To be honest, I'm not sure what desecration and defilement involves but I've got a few ideas. Want to hear? You might like some."

"See!" Harmony squealed, "That's what I said but you didn't believe me!"

Buffy frowned slightly at the lesser blonde vampire, "Yeah but you said it funny."

"I did not!"

"Did so."

"Don't make me separate you two." Xander interrupted the two Californian blondes, "And I'll do it too."

"Uh. Spike. When you say tonight, do you have a time?" Anya asked, looking at the clock.

"Sundown." Spike said then sniffed the air a few times and added, "I'd give you five hours, max."

"Five hours to prepare to fight the combined demon hordes of Sunnydale." Willow said, frowning deeply, "That suddenly doesn't seem like a lot of time."

"How many demons are we talking about?" Kennedy asked, "This town is pretty small."

Buffy sighed, "The last time we fought a collective demon hording, they were in the hundreds. Two, maybe three hundred."

Kennedy blinked, "What? You can't be serious."

Buffy raised an eyebrow at her Watcher and asked him "You didn't tell her about the initiative?"

Her watcher looked confused, "The initiative? What's that."

"Forget I said anything." Buffy groaned, "We've got to work out a plan before sundown, so we should start now."

"I don't think I can handle demons in the hundreds." Kennedy said, a little bit of fear showing through.

Buffy patted her on the shoulder and said "We've got two slayers, two watchers, two witches, two vampires, a demon, an ex-demon and the mayor. We can handle a demon horde, can't we?"

"Hey. You don't have me." Spike argued, "I don't have anything riding on this."

Buffy looked at him skeptically, "You're going to miss out on this fight?"

Spike pouted, "No. But I want money."

Tara frowned, "Uh. Who's the demon again? Buffy mentioned a demon. I'm not a demon. We all get that, right?"

"Tell." Buffy told her, "Oh yeah. That's right. Tell's a demon."

Tara gave Buffy a blank look then shrugged, "Oh. Okay."

"So what are we going to do?" Kennedy asked.

Buffy shrugged, "I don't know but I'm sure we'll figure something out. We always do."

OXOXOX-

Three hours later and everyone is looking bored in the magic box. Tell had recently come out of the training room. Spike and Tara had chosen to sit down but besides that, it was almost exactly the same scene.

Xander looked up at the clock and Spike asked "Is it okay to raid the cashier before the demon horde comes to kill you all? Because it would be a lot easier if I did it now as opposed to later when I'm running for my unlife."

Anya hemmed, "If anyone's going to raid the register it's going to be me."

After that, the room fell into another uncomfortable silence again which was eventually interrupted by the doorbell ringing and the complete team of Angel investigations walking into the store to many peoples amazement.

"Hasn't this place just gone to hell since I left?" Angel said, grinning like an idiot. That was until his eyes adjusted to the light and he saw Spike glaring at him from across the room.

"Bloody hell!" Spike swore, "Slayer, was this your idea?"

"It wasn't me!" Buffy defended himself.

Angel glowered at Spike and snarled "Spike."

"Cordy!" Harmony cheered, running across the room and hugging Cordelia.

"Hey Harm. Nice to see you too." she said while hugging her back, "Can you squeeze the life out of me a little less?"

"Oh, sorry." Harmony said, releasing her and looking embarrassed.

"So who are these guys?" Kennedy asked out loud.

"Angel, Vampire with a soul. You might have heard about me." Angel said, looking strangely at Harmony.

"Gunn. Not a vampire."

"Wesley Wyndham Pryce."

"Cordelia Chase, Seer to the powers that be."

Now that their side had finished, Buffy's side introduced themselves.

"Buffy, Slayer." Buffy said with a smile then whispered to the table, "Counter clockwise."

"Xander, Mayor."

"Xander. That's clockwise." Buffy hissed at him, "It's Willow's turn."

Willow rolled her eyes and said "Willow, Witch."

"Tara... Witch."

"Anya. Ex-demon."

"Tell. Plain demon."

"Rupert Giles. The owner of this store."

"Michael Armitage, Watcher."

"Kennedy. Slayer."

"And I'm Harmony and I'm a vampire." she said, full of cheer, "Cordy, you look great."

"Spike, You all know me. The only ACTUAL vampire in the room. But I'm also the protector of little puppies and Christmas and I do it a helluva lot better than Angel ever did."

"Did Willow ensoul you?" Wesley asked Harmony who just shrugged.

"What's Spike doing here?" Angel asked angrily.

Buffy stood up and said "I've got a better question. What are you doing here? What's wrong with people nowadays that they can't just pick up a phone?"

"Cordy got a vision that you needed our help." Angel replied.

Xander snorted, "Cordy got a vision? Since when does she get visions?"

"Since I became a seer, dweeb boy." she spat back, "And since when did you wear suits?"

"You like? It's Armani." Xander said as he preened his lapels, "And it started when I became the mayor."

Cordelia snorted, "Yeah, right. If you're the Mayor then I'm the queen of Sheba."

"Whatever you say, your shabbiness." Xander shot back.

Buffy ignored them and talked straight to Angel, "This vision. It wouldn't happen to be about a demon jamboree in Sunnydale, would it?"

"Yes... I think so. I'm not clear on what a jamboree is."

"Did this vision give you any clue on how to stop it?" Buffy asked.

Angel looked to Cordelia who just shrugged and he admitted, "No. I don't think so. I thought we would just do it the usual way."

"And he calls himself a private dick?" Spike scoffed, "Bloody ponce couldn't dick his way out of a shoebox."

"Alright. Spike. Shut up. Everyone, stop arguing and work together." Buffy told them with her hands on her hips, looking domineering, "We've got two hours until sundown! That's two hours before a horde of demons come to .. do unspeakables to me. Doesn't anyone have any ideas?"

"You could leave town." Kennedy suggested as if it was the sanest course of action.

Spike snorted, "And miss out on the biggest fight of her life? I don't think so. She's thinking about how to beat them."

"What we need is something big." Buffy told them, "Maybe a bomb. No. That wouldn't work. Maybe we could use rocket launchers like we used on the judge."

"We can't get a rocket in two hours." Xander told them, "Security is too tight during the day and it would take longer than two hours for an acquisition form to go through."

Buffy blinked, "You can ORDER a bazooka? Why didn't you do that as soon as you become mayor?"

"I didn't think of it." Xander said guiltily.

"So we don't have anything to fight them with." Kennedy said, "I think this is a leave town situation."

"'She's got a real defeatist attitude. Doesn't she?" Anya mused to herself, "I can relate."

Spike snorted, "Hey. It's her first day on the job, luv. She just needs her cherry popped on a real rumble then she'll see things our way."

"Hey!" Kennedy yelled at him, "It's not my first day on the job. I've slain things. I'm just not as insane as you people."

"Has anyone ever attended a riot?" Tell asked, out of nowhere.

"When I was younger I joined in a few after soccer games." Giles admitted, "Why?"

"I think that's what I think it will be like." Tell explained, "Just swap the English soccer fans with evil demons."

"Oh lord." Giles swore, "They won't stop at just killing Buffy. They'll destroy the entire town. They might not even stop there."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked.

"You've obviously never seen an English soccer riot." Michael said, "They're unstoppable. A force of nature."

"Riots would be a whole lot easier to stop if the police were allowed to just kill the rioters." Anya noted then Xander sat up as if a light went off in his head.

"Ooh." Xander said, getting up, "Ooh. I'm having a moment."

"Do you want some privacy?" Cordelia joked.

Without even needing to think about it, Buffy knew what he was thinking and didn't like it.

"Xander. That will never work." she warned him.

"What won't?" Willow asked, "What are you guys not talking about?"

With a smile on his face, Xander asked her "How do the police normally handle a riot?"

Willow frowned and thought about it, "Armored vehicles, tear gas, water cannons and the occasional beating but we don't have any of those."

"Yes we do." Xander said, still smiling, "After we blew up the mayor and the initiative took over Sunnydale one of the first things they did was upgrade the police department's facilities to deal with the hellmouth. One of the second things they did was find out just how stupid the police department was but they didn't take their gear back. It's still there."

"So you want us to break into a PD and steal the gear we need?" Gunn asked.

Xander chuckled, "I thought we would just ask. Mayor, remember."

"You can do that?" Angel asked in disbelief "You? You're a clown."

Xander couldn't help but smirk at Angel, "Aww. That's so cute. He's jealous of my super powers."

"I-I am not." Angel said, not really able to deny it.

Xander chuckled as he pulled out a cell phone, selected a number in it's address book and held it to his ear.

"Hello. Chief of police? It's the mayor. We need to have a little talk."

OXOXOX

A door opened to a dark underground room and someone stumbled into the darkness.

"Where's that light?" they asked, padding a wall looking for it..

"I got it." Angel said, followed by a click.

Lights sprung to life, showing an extensive underground complex, a strange cross between a parking lot and a military stockpile. The secret subbasement was packed full of crates, vehicles and trailers, along with a few small office cubicles.

Xander had only brought along Angel, Gunn, Spike and Buffy to help with supplies. All heavy lifters.

"Well. There it is." said the chief of police, a well meaning but clumsy looking older man.

"Thank you, chief. That will be all." Xander told him, implying him to leave.

"Buh-but.. right you are, Sir." said the defender of the law and he shuffled off, out of the room.

As soon as he passed over the threshold, Xander closed the door behind him.

Then he burst into laughter, "OHHH YEEAH! Look at this place!"

"This is amazing. It's like the initiative all over again." Buffy said, grinning like an idiot.

"You own this stuff, right?" Gunn asked, "I don't suppose you could boost me an armored car. I could put it to good use, man."

Xander sighed, "I don't own it. The town owns it."

Spike ran along the lot to where a bizarre little vehicle sat. It looked like a stainless steel sports car, an amalgamation of boys toy and armored vehicle, obviously a pet project of some wacky initiative engineer.

He jumped on the bonnet and started dancing and of all things, singing.

"Why, this car is automatic. It's systematic. It's HY-Dromatic. Why it's grease lightning!"

"Spike. Get off there." Angel scolded his childe.

"You know I aint bragging, she's a real pussy wagon! Grease lightning. Go Grease lightning."

Spike stopped singing as Xander cocked a shotgun and pointed it at Spike.

"I'm with Angel on this. Stop singing." Xander said, eerily serious.

"Those aren't the real lyrics to grease lightning, are they?" Gunn asked, "He's vamping them up."

Spike looked at him, shocked, "No, I'm not! Don't tell me you've never seen John Travolta's musical masterpiece."

"No. I thought it was just a stupid musical." Gunn explained as Spike jumped off the extreme sports car.

"Oh, it is!" Spike emphasised, "But there's nothing wrong with that."

"Can you put that down?" Buffy asked Xander, looking at the gun in his hands.

Xander frowned but conceded, placing it back on the rack that was hanging from the wall.

"Don't be so hasty, Slayer. A good gun could be useful." Spike told her then turned to Angel with a smirk "Like remember Saint Petersburg, Angie? You thought up some real blighters back then."

"I don't want to know." Buffy told them both.

"And don't call me Angie." Angel added.

"All right, peaches."

Xander picked the shotgun back up and thought about it, "I guess it'll at least slow a demon down."

"Some demons you can kill with guns." Spike said conversationally, "Actually. I think I might nick some too."

"No." Buffy warned him, "We don't need you gunrunning stolen government property."

"You wound me slayer." Spike said, putting on a hard over his heart.

"Kinda my job." Buffy commented as Xander flipped open his briefcase and pulled something out.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this." Xander said cheerfully, "Here's the shipping manifest for everything here. Oh. You're in luck, Buffy. There should be missiles in your future."

"Really?" Buffy asked like a kid at Christmas, "You're just the best mayor I've ever."

Xander smirked at her, "Yuh. Like that's so hard. So... I guess they're in a crate somewhere."

Everyone got to work looking through the crates for the missiles, talking as they did.

"Why the hell would the army give the one-time rockets?" Gunn asked, "It's not like they're allowed to use them, are they?"

"For emergency situations only." Xander told him, "Like say, I dunno, what's going to happen in a few hours."

"The vampire could be lying." Gunn argued.

"Nah. He'd never do that." Buffy said as if she trusted Spike, "Because if he did, I'd stick him in a wheelchair again."

Spike leaned over to Angel's direction and said "Don't let the tough act fool ya, she really loves me."

"I heard that." Buffy hollered over to him, "And I only love punching you in the face."

Spike shrugged, getting back to work, "There's many types of love."

"Whoa!" Gunn laughed as he opened up a large military green crate, "The guy's right. Here's the rockets. But where's the.. you know. Thingee."

"Thingee?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah. The thing you do the..." Gunn tried to show her what he meant by an awkward mime sketch.

"The launcher?" Buffy asked, "Yeah. We can't use them without a launcher. Where's the launcher?"

Xander raised an eyebrow, looking down on the inventory list again, "There should be two in there."

"There's none." Buffy said flatly, "Hey. You don't think we could just use the launcher we've already got, do you?"

"Sorry, Buff. Totally wrong sort of missile. Those are slightly smaller I think." Xander said with a frown as he looked over the list again, "There should be some launchers around somewhere and.. blasters. Those could be useful too."

"There's no blasting blasters." Spike joked, "No really. There isn't. I think someone's gotten here before us."

"It could just be an overzealous cop." Buffy mused, "An overzealous cop who brings a missile launcher on duty with him. Hmm. Sounds like a TV show."

Xander shook his head, still looking over the list and frowning, "Only the chief of police, me and a few initiative agents have the keys to down here and I don't think it's the chief. Doesn't strike me as the vigilante with a missile type. Did.. Did anyone see any jet engines? Uh, okay. That's not good. It seems someone's been dipping into our supplies."

"These crates have what we came for." Angel said, pointing to some large crates which would take two people or one vampire to carry, "I think we should get started on the plan now and worry about property theft later."

Xander sighed, "Okay. Buffy, you get that armoured car. I'm not trusting you with the riot tank... Uh, Gunn? You can drive right?"

Gunn nodded, surprisingly not insulted by the question, "Rock, paper, scissors you for the tank."

Xander shrugged then asked, "So the winner drives the tank or does the loser?"

"The winner of course." Gunn laughed, "Why? You scared of it?"

"I've got to admit. I'm a little intimidated."

"Can I play?" Spike asked.

"No!" Everyone else said in tune.

"Loser drives the other van." Gunn said, shaking his fist for the game.

Xander held his fist up too, "On zero. Three - two - one -go."

Gunn had paper, Xander had scissors.

"Damn." They said together.

Gunn looked at Xander who just looked at the floor sheepishly.

OXOXOX

A few minutes later, back at the magic box.

Wesley and Giles were hovering over a map, a satellite topography of Sunnydale. They had little baubles representing their forces and skittles representing the demons. They were talking about strategies and so forth.

Others were watching half-heartedly, some of them waiting for Buffy to arrive before anything was set in stone.

As if on cue, Buffy walked into the magic box, followed by Joyce and Dawn.

"I think it's perfectly understandable to miss a day of school if our house gets burnt down." Dawn tried to reason with her mother.

"Sorry guys. I had a little trouble with the van when I drove home." Buffy apologized, "Angel, Cordy, Gunn. Can we talk outside?"

Wesley looked up, realising something wasn't quite right.

Giles hemmed, catching Wesleys attention away from his colleagues, "What do you think about this strategy?"

Wesley looked back down, looking at where Giles was placing the pieces and he sighed and said "But that would leave this side exposed. We can't move a vehicle through that valley."

"A motorcycle could do that." Tell told him.

Wesley looked at Tell, his face scrunched, "That would be suicide."

Tell nudged him and tilted his head, "All we'd need is someone ... expendable."

Wesley followed Tell's gesture to where Spike was looking sullen in the corner, his arms wrapped around himself defensively and looking entirely antisocial.

Wesley smiled, "Yes. I do believe that's a sterling idea."

OXOXOX

Buffy was standing in front of the armored van she had parked in the shade between the magic box and the neighboring building.

Angel, Gunn and Cordelia were looking at her as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"Okay. Look. There's something I couldn't tell you inside. The reason the demons are being pushed to rise up against us is not what you think."

"You mean they don't just want to kill you?" Cordelia asked.

"Well. Yeah. But it's a little more than that." Buffy said, still uncomfortable, "But before I tell you the reason, you've got to promise that you won't freak and you definitely won't go back inside and tell Wesley or that other watcher. Don't tell anyone else about this. Don't mention this at all. It's kinda secret."

Gunn shrugged and nodded easily enough, while Angel and Cordelia looked at each other, unsure about Buffy's out of character behavior.

"The demons, they're not after me. They're after Faith."

"Faith? Faith is here!" Cordelia yelled.

"Keep it down." Buffy scolded her.

"Who's Faith?" Gunn asked, confused.

"A slayer." Angel told him, frowning, "Okay. I know no one was talking about it Buffy but I was under the impression that Faith was dead. You've got another Slayer in the store."

Buffy nodded, "That's right. The watchers don't know Faith is still alive and I want to keep them in the dark."

"You're protecting her?" Cordelia asked, "You! Of all people I thought you'd throw her at them."

"She's in a coma. What am I supposed to do?" Buffy asked, "If I gave her to them, they'd just kill her."

Angel and Cordelia frowned in confusion and Buffy said "A different coma. A new coma."

Cordelia couldn't help but ask "Are you sure she's in a coma? Because I've heard this song and dance before. Then Faith came along and tried to shoot one of us."

"Actually she did shoot me." Angel admitted, "Not with the crossbow. With a gun."

"I'm confused. Why would the watchers want to kill a slayer? Aren't they on your side?" Gunn asked.

"Faith turned bad and killed people." Cordelia explained, "Faith's only on her own side."

"Oh. So she lost her soul, like Angel can do if he gets a happy?" Gunn asked, "Do slayers have the same curse too?"

Buffy blinked, "What did you tell him about me?"

Angel frowned, "I said vampires slayers are like vampires except they're good. Strength, speed, always girls. I didn't think he'd take it to mean that you're an actual vampire."

Buffy groaned, "Gunn. I'm human. Totally and completely. So is Faith. She just went a little nuts."

"A little? More like Christmas hamper type nuts with those hard macadamia things that you can't break open with a nutcracker." Cordelia spat, "She worked for the bad guys, she tried to kill you and she tied to take Angels soul."

Angel frowned, "You know that she came to LA to kill me a while back. She just disappeared though. I guess that was when she fell into another coma."

"I heard." Buffy said, looking down at the ground, "But what would you have me do? Kill her?"

With a slight smile on his face, Angel lifted her head and asked "You think she can be saved?"

"I don't know. I really don't know anything anymore."

"I think I can agree with you there." Angel smirked.

"You do?" Buffy asked, confused.

"You DO!" Cordelia yelled at him, "But she tried to kill you! and what about when she wakes up and tries to kill you again? What then, huh?"

Buffy stood up a little straighter, "We'll get to that when we get to that."

"You don't have a plan?" Gunn asked.

Buffy shrugged, "We've got a plan but can we just focus on the demon horde for now and not get sidetracked?"

"Buffy's right, Cordy. What's our motto?" Angel asked her.

Cordelia sighed, "We help the helpless?"

"And what is Faith right now?" Angel asked, "I'd say a coma makes her pretty helpless."

"I hate you sometimes." Cordelia fumed and stormed out.

Buffy sniggered, "Wow. You've got her whipped."

"Now there's an image." Gunn smirked, "Look. I don't know about you've got going on but Angel seems cool with it so I'm cool with it. I'll just follow Cord. Make sure she doesn't walk into traffic."

With that, he was off, running after Cordelia, the crazy white chick.

"He's nice." Buffy said about Gunn.

Angel nodded, "He still doesn't like me but he's solid. Trustworthy. Actually reminds me of Xander, except he's not insane."

"So, him and Cordelia?.. Or is it Wesley?"

Angel chuckled, "No. It seems that Cordelia's chosen to date outside of work. Which is smart, really. Office romances can turn so ugly."

"I can attest to that." Buffy said gloomily.

The silence grew with them standing so close and Buffy broke it, tiredly saying "Riley left me."

"Oh. That's good." Angel said, relieved then a little more tensely explained, "Not good but I thought he was dead, which would be worse. You get what I mean. So, what happened?"

"He thought I was a lesbian. At least, that's what he said. I still can't believe he would think that, can you?"

Angel frowned, "Buffy. Just how stupid was this guy?"

"A lot more stupid than I thought." Buffy laughed, "I mean.. do I put off lesbian vibes to you?"

"Not when I'm this close to you." Angel said, tensely, standing back a bit to give himself some unneeded air, "I think he was trying to play with your head."

"Another vote towards him being brainwashed by the government. When he broke up with me, I really think he thought he was doing what's best for both of us." Buffy said sadly, "Angel, tell me the truth. Am I bad in bed?"

Angel looked surprised at the question, "Buffy. Not every girl can claim to have stolen a guys soul by giving them a true moment of happiness."

"So I'm good?"

"Words aren't enough. And that was your first time too. I hate to think what you're like with experience behind you."

"But.. But you've like.. At the time I took your soul, you hadn't been with anyone in a century."

Angel smiled slightly, "Umm. Buffy. I never mentioned this before but I've had sex since I was cursed by gypsies all those years ago."

"Really? With who?"

"That's not really important. All I'm saying is a man would have to be insane or a vampire scared of losing his soul to leave you. Or gay."

Buffy looked up at Angel, curious, "You don't think.."

"I did pick up a vibe." Angel joked.

"You two had better not be going at it again." Dawn's annoying voice came out of nowhere, surprising Angel and Buffy, "I'll tell mom."

Buffy looked at Dawn sourly, "Dawn. We don't need checking up on."

"I'm not here for you." Dawn spat, "I'm on invalid watch again."

Then Dawn opened the back of the van and got in, closing the door behind her and locking it.

"We better go inside." Buffy said, getting Angel to follow her into the magic box.

They walked through the training room and into the store room, which was now closed to the public, to come in at the end of the meeting.

"Angel, you're in Gunn's van." Wesley called out to him, "Buffy, you're with Xander."

"Hang on. How come they're given armored vehicles and I'm being given a bike?" Spike asked.

"And how come all the womenfolk are staying behind?" Cordelia asked, "And don't give me that look, Buffy. You don't count."

"Because if anything happens, I want you out of there." Xander told her, "Safe and sound and preferably out of town. And in the unlikely event that someone goes after the Summers, I want at least someone around them I can rely on. Read anything you want out of that."

"Hey, I'm reliable." Harmony whined.

"No, you're not." Tell told her, holding up his hands to show the bandages on them, "Remember this morning?"

"Talking of which, will you be okay with your part?" Xander asked.

Tell nodded, "Don't worry about me, just keep yourself alive."

"Alright then people. Move like you've got a purpose." Xander told them, in command mode, "Willow, fill Angel in on the road. Buffster, you're with me."

Willow nodded then turned to Tara, "I'll see you after, okay honey?"

Tara nodded, her brow heavy with worry, "You be careful."

"You know me." Willow replied, kissing her gently and getting a "whoa" from Gunn.

Tara and Willow looked at him and he held his hands up defensively, "Don't let me stop you. It's a beautiful thang."

Both of them blushed and separated, now that the mood was ruined.

Quietly but with purpose, everyone filed out of the magic box to their respective vehicles.

OXOXOX

Sunset.

"If anyone needs to go to the toilet, now's the time." Buffy said over the radio, her voice crackling with a slight interference.

Anya, Joyce and Tara were at the front of the armored van while Dawn, Harmony, Cordelia and Faith were in the back. Faith was strapped down in her stretcher which was in turn tied down to one of the two benches that were installed in the van. Everyone else in the back was sitting on the other bench.

They were the non-combatants in this fight. If anything went wrong, they were given strict instructions to drive to the local army ranger base. Xander also gave them some papers, which Joyce was spending her time looking over.

Harmony in particular seemed the most annoyed that she had to baby-sit Faith.

"All this trouble over.. her." Harmony grumbled, putting extra venom into the last word.

Cordelia appraised Harmony's dress and asked "I didn't think you knew her."

"We've met. She's pure evil."

Cordelia raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah. I'm evil too. Sort of. But she's just mean." Harmony said, glumly.

Dawn nodded, "The times Harmony took me captive, she didn't torture me or anything. She even got into an argument once with her minions who wanted to drain me and she told them to jump off a bridge."

"See. I'm evil but not mean." Harmony said, triumphantly.

Cordelia gave Harmony a weird look, "You had minions?"

"Yeah. Buffy sorta killed them. But I'm cool with that. I've totally given up the master vampire lifestyle. You see, I've discovered that I'm a people person and evil is sort of the opposite of that. Evil is all about having no friends, like Spike does."

"Hey." Dawn cried, "I'm Spike's friend."

"Case in point." Harmony said with a smile, "Now that Spike's stopped his murdering evil ways, he's gained a friend. I've got to say that after I was vamped my life sucked. I tried being evil but I just wasn't any good at it. But now, I've actually got a lot. I've got friends who care about me, a nice place and my boyfriend is a great lover."

"Spike? You're dating Spike?"

Harmony laughed, "Hell no. I dumped him ages ago... like a week back. Do you remember the librarian from school?"

Cordelia's mouth fell open, "Giles?"

"Yeah. That's him. He's very attentive to my needs, which I feel I need at this point in my life."

Cordelia looked over to where Dawn was smirking and back to Harmony who was smiling innocently, "But.. he's Giles. You can't... He's Giles."

"I know that." Harmony replied in quick typical valley girl fashion.

Cordelia stared at Harmony for a while and said "But he's old."

Harmony rolled her eyes, "I know there's an age difference but who didn't have a crush on a teacher at school?"

"But we're talking about Giles here. He's so British."

Next to Cordelia, Dawn chuckled, "Didn't you used to have a thing for Wesley?"

Cordelia looked at her, oblivious to what Dawn was pointing out and asked "So?"

"He's British too." Dawn said, "Isn't he?"

"But that's different." Cordelia said, rolling her eyes, "He not Giles."

"That settles it." Dawn laughed at Cordelia, "You're an idiot."

"Hey!" Cordelia yelled at her.

"What? I always knew it. That just settles it."

"You don't find it the least bit icky that Harmony's with Giles?" Cordelia asked Dawn.

"Better her than me." Dawn chuckled, "But to be entirely honest, if they can make it work then more power to them."

Cordelia sighed, "Your after school special wisdom is right."

"I know I am." Dawn smirked.

Then the van fell back into it's uncomfortable silence, the only thing of interest was the pale girl with the needle in her arm.

"The inside of the van was surprisingly spacious." Cordelia said, her turn to break the silence.

"It needs is a little feng shui." Harmony added, "There's not even enough in here to play eye spy. Ooh. I've got one. I spy with my little eye something beginning with F."

"Is it Faith?" Cordelia asked.

"Wow. You're better than Spike!"

OXOXOX

Michael Armitage and Wesley Wyndham-Pryce were camped out on top of a building site. In fact, the same building site Xander was working on before he was boosted to the position of mayor.

They were there because it gave them a good view of Doc's meeting site, deadmans bluff.

"Wyndham-Pryce." Armitage said toWesley as they both were looking through binoculars, "I just want you to know that if this turns sour, I'm blaming you."

"I expected no less." Wesley replied easily, "And I'm going to blame the American Army for this absurd contingency plan."

"Do you really think it's a smart idea to put your faith in those children?"

Wesley actually put his binoculars down at this and said "That's an unusual question coming from someone who routinely puts his life in the hands of a fifteen year old."

"She's actually sixteen and I don't rely on her for my own protection. I've staked quite a few of my own vampires, thank you very much."

Wesley went back to looking through his binoculars, "I'm sure you're very proud of yourself."

"Wouldn't you be?"

"Not so much. It's just part of my job."

"I doubt that somehow. You're the only ex-watcher I've ever heard of that works for a vampire."

"And yet here you are working with me." Wesley said snidely, "And don't talk about Angel like that. He's more man than most watchers could ever hope to be. Since I left the council, with his help, I've stopped more evil than I ever did during my tenure as a watcher. As a team, I like to think we'd even make a slayer proud."

"Vampires and demons." Armitage said lowly, "In my day, we used to just kill them."

Wesley chuckled, "You're not that much older than me."

Michael chuckled too, "It sounded good though, didn't it? OH! Demons. I've got demons."

"Where?" Wesley asked.

"Next to the grocers and the electrical store."

"I see them now." Wesley said, getting his radio out and talking into it, "We've got demons coming out of the vents on Clearfield street. Willow, drive across to Jarman so they don't see you parked there."

"We've got some more coming from the caves in that graveyard." Michael added to the list of demons migrating.

"Good eye." Wesley complimented him.

"I'm still going to blame you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Like the zombies from Michael Jacksons music video for thriller, more and more demons wandered to the base of the bluff. Amongst them, vampires skittered around like flies. Fights were starting to break out, old scores being settled while some of them were getting impatient.

There was something to be said for humanities herding instinct.

A few minutes went past and the demons grew in number exponentially.

"Xander. I think it's time you called the police." Wesley said into the radio piece, "Spike, there's a few demons who have started the raiding early on Bernard. Could you please dispatch them for us? Willow, move back into position. The coast is clear."

Armitage watched with interest as Spike drove along Bernard on a bike, along with Tell who was on the back. Once he saw the raiders, he did skidded to a halt and had Tell let loose an arrow from the composite bow he had acquired somewhere.

With a neck shot, one of the demons went down and the other two started growling and running after them.

Spike spun wheels and sped off down the road, keeping the raiders just out of reach and giving Tell two easy targets.

Tell released two more arrows with a speed and accuracy that would make any archer proud and took them both out.

"Not bad." Michael admitted.

"Hmm?" Wesley asked, having had his attention elsewhere.

"Nothing."

"Good. Get to the mortar. You remember how to work that, don't you?"

"Yes." Michael spat, sticking a mortar round into the wide-bore launcher that Xander had bolted into the concrete for them.

"Come on." Wesley said impatiently, "The police should be getting into position by now."

"What's the average response time for police in Sunnydale?" Michael asked.

"About two hours usually but Xander said they were ready and waiting."

Michael sighed, "And you believed him?"

"Watchers." Buffy said through the radio, "We don't see the cops. Start the assault."

Wesley sighed and nodded to Armitage who dropped a round into the mortar and let it fly.

"Okay. Masks and goggles on people." Buffy said over the radio, her voice heavier than normal, "It's action time."

A sickly yellow smoke plumed up from the mortar round which hit a little too far to the back of the demons.

"Too far." Wesley told him, "Come back a hundred meters."

Armitage fiddled with the angle of the mortar then let loose another smoke round.

"Direct hit. Now give them a live one." Wesley said with a grin.

With a grin of his own, Armitage dropped in a mortar round, one with a bright blue band painted on it, in stark contrast to the other grey mortar rounds he had previously used.

A few seconds later, the demons at the base of the bluff were carpet bombed with a swarm of small explosive charges that mortar had split up into. Each charge was a small grenade which showered the field in lead shrapnel.

Some had died, some were merely wounded, some just seemed to get ticked off because of the loud bang but the jamboree was officially over and any of them that could move, did. Some of them moved extremely fast too.

But the area was being bombarded with yellow smoke canisters and tear gas rounds from the mortar and the horde of demons was quickly becoming a confused, chaotic and screeching mass of individuals.

That was when Wesley put down the binoculars and pulled up a high tech looking scope with a digital display. While his binoculars were obscured by the yellow clouds, the display showed a black and white image which cut straight through the smoke as if it wasn't there.

OXOXOX

Xander drove the armored car slowly into the clouds of smoke, wearing a pair of initiative issue night vision goggles that helped him look straight through it to see the gas and a matching gas mask over his nose and mouth to protect against the tear gas.

"That's a whole lot of demon." Xander said, "You've got to wonder where all the demons came from, considering how many were killed by the initiative."

"When it rains it pours." Buffy said, grinning under her own goggles and mask. She patted him on the back as she got up out of her chair and moved back to the rear of the vehicle to where Giles was preparing something.

"Are you ready, Buffy?" Giles asked her.

"I sure am." Buffy said, jumping up to crouch on a raised table that looked out of place in the middle of the car, "Hit me."

Giles lit the Molotov cocktail in his hands and gave it to her.

Then she opened a hatch in the roof and stood up so her top half was outside.

"Here we go." Buffy said grimly and threw the cocktail violently into the air. Before it had landed she looked down and said "Give me another."

Over the growls and screams, Buffy heard the bottle break and explode into flames then in the distance she saw demons glowing hot white with fire through her monochrome display.

OXOXOX

Elsewhere on the field smoke rounds continued to rain down from the sky.

Spike drove into the smoke on a bike, just ahead of the armored van which Willow was driving.

Demons were bouncing left and right off the cowcatcher front of the van with the occasional one being crushed under the might of the massive vehicle.

Spike couldn't see her smile but he just knew she had one.

Behind him, Tell was shooting demons and vampires left and right with his bow.

Spike swerved the bike sideways then speed off on a different angle to avoid a large clump of demons.

"This is the stupidest thing I've ever done." Spike laughed.

"You haven't lived." Tell said from the back of the bike, letting loose another arrow, "I don't think I brought enough arrows."

Then something in the air changed and the demons disappeared from view.

"This can't be good." Spike muttered.

"Huh?" Tell said, only to pulled off the back of Spike's bike by something.

Spike looked back to see Tell pinned to the ground, struggling to get up, "What the hell?"

Then he found himself knocked off the bike and having his goggles being torn off.

OXOXOX

"Where did they go?" Xander's voice asked over the radio, "I can't see them anymore."

Tara tensed, gripping the scythe so tight her knuckles went white.

She was sitting in the front of the noncombatants armored van, quite a distance across town.

"Something's wrong." she said, looking out at nothing, "I can.. I can see him. A mage."

Tara let one hand go of the scythe and picked up the radio piece, which she talked into, "Wesley. Stop firing the smoke. There's a mage in the crowd. He's using the smoke as an agent to for an obscuration spell. That's why you can't see them."

Anya looked at Tara, worried but not saying anything.

Tara looked back at her then across to the battlefield across town, which was by now covered in a large yellow cloud.

"Don't do it." Anya told her.

But Tara had already made up her mind. She opened the side door and started running.

As she ran, voices, sounds and sights flittered into her head.

"Get this thing in reverse!" she heard Kennedy yell, followed by a crash and Willow screaming.

As she ran, she looked down at the Scythe in her hands, knowing that's where the visions were coming from. Despite how painful they were, instead of letting it go, she gripped tighter and a fiery determination flowed through her.

"Willow!" Xander's voice shot through her head like she was a walking talking radio, "I'm coming girl."

"Tara!" Anya yelled as the van kept pulled up next to her, "Get in. You'll just tire yourself running your legs like that."

Relieved somewhat, Tara jumped into the van and they accelerated along the road.

OXOXOX

Willow grunted as consciousness came back to her.

What had happened?

"Oh that's right. The invisible demons pushed my armored van over." She said, trying to get off the door which was now the floor.

Something hit the windscreen, making a small scratch in it which joined the other multitude of scratches and cracks already on the windscreens.

Looking for something to help her in this situation, she spotted the machinegun attached to the roof of the cabin. It wasn't part of the plan. None of the Scoobies put it there.

Frowning in thought, Willow remembered something she saw on TV. Something about machineguns and armored vans.

"One way bullet proof glass." Willow remembered as she stood up slightly and pulled the machinegun off the roof.

She pointed it at the one way bulletproof glass windscreen and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Trying to focus, she looked at the gun.

"It's got ammunition so.."

Finally she found the safety catch and turned it off then pointed it and pulled the trigger again.

Nothing happened.

"Why won't you work for me?" Willow asked the gun as she looked for another safety.

Finding a moving part, Willow cocked it back and heard a bullet slide into place.

Sighing, she pointed it at the window and pulled the trigger.

The gun fired a bullet through the glass and recoiled back, the stock hitting her square in the forehead.

"Owwhoww!" Willow moaned, "I hate you."

Then she propped the machinegun against the seats and pulled the trigger some more times and each time it spat out a bullet.

Outside, she heard howls and the assault on the cabin had stopped.

Obviously she had hit something or several somethings but she wasn't in the mood to celebrate.

She just slumped back down onto the door, trying to fight the sleepy feeling that was trying to take her over.

OXOXOX

"Cease and desist all hostilities." Xander's voice said over a loud speaker as the riot car he was driving ran over demons he couldn't see.

Another cocktail exploded but this one a little too close to the car for Xander's liking.

That's when he heard Buffy struggling and yelling, "Get off me. Stupid.."

He heard an inhuman screech, obviously Buffy doing something painful.

Then he heard Buffy scream "Giles!"

"Buffy?" Giles called after her.

The car hit something and stopped, Xander's head fell forwards, hitting the steering wheel.

"Ow." Xander said weakly and then his world was tipped upside down as the car was pushed over.

OXOXOX

Buffy coughed and closed her eyes. They wouldn't be any use to her now.

She lashed out with a foot, hitting a demon somewhere then was struck by one of them from the side and she was knocked against the sharp sides of the upside-down armored car.

Around her, the demons were laughing and playing with her like a toy.

"Buffy." Gile's voice called out to her, "Open your eyes."

Buffy did and found herself surrounded by demons which she could now see. Something had caused the smoke to roll back.

Lashing out, she kicked one in the groin and kicked two more in the head but she was too badly beaten to take them all on and they started piling in on her with fists and claws while Giles and Xander called for her.

BAANG!

With a cracking sound, one of the demons was blown off her and the other demons and vampires looked up to the newcomer.

"You want her. You're going to have to go through me." Xander said, pumping the combat shotgun in his hands, "So who wants a taste of shotgun?"

The closest vampire to him charged and Xander blew it's head off, dusting it, much to his surprise.

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about. Do you want some? Do ya?" Xander blustered, waving the shotgun left and right.

Vampires and demons alike moved back from where he pointed the shotgun.

"We can all just attack him together." a demon said and Xander quickly turned and shot at it.

It fell to the ground, writhing and bleeding from the neck and now too busy dying to say anything else.

"Any more bright ideas?" Xander yelled at the crowd.

One of the bigger demons walked forwards. A particularly large furry beast with a face covered in eyes.

"The machines of man mean nothing to us."

Xander shot it in the head to apparently little effect.

It bellowed out a deep laugh, "I've got five more eyes where that one came from."

Xander pumped the shotgun again and aimed it for another go at the giant when a motorbike tumbled out of the clouds, bouncing insanely and hitting the demon sideways.

Xander took a look at the bewildered demon that still had the bike on top of it, shrugged, then shot the bike's fuel tank.

The bike didn't explode but it did start gushing burning petrol all over the demon who got up and started screaming like a chicken with it's head cut off.

Falling in from the sky, Spike slammed into another demon, knocking it to the ground.

Behind Spike, Tell came running, turning back a second to shoot an arrow into the clouds.

Giles threw a cocktail, hitting past the demon's front lines. The demons scattered away from the fire in pain and stumbled over each other.

Not one of the demons called for a retreat but since they had lost the totally unfair advantage they had started running for their lives.

"Don't run!" One of the braver demons cried, "Kill that witch! She's seeding the wind."

That sentiment garnered some support and a pack of top heavy werewolf like creatures started a charge away from the armored car.

"Willow." Xander whispered under his breath and he pumped out the last three remaining shots into the charging demons as they rushed past. He'd took one out but with three more left running it didn't look good.

"SPIKE!" Xander yelled at the blonde, "Stop THEM!"

Spike looked away from the demon he was jumping on and followed the directions with Tell running along also.

Xander took a look back at Buffy and Giles who were getting their senses back then hobbled to the end of the car to watch the chase.

At the entrance of the park, the non combatant's armored van stood with Tara, Cordelia and Harmony standing in the front of it.

Spike and Tell were gaining on the demons, although Tell was definitely lagging behind. To make himself faster, he dropped the bow and shook loose the quiver of arrows and ran with renewed power, still only just slightly faster than the demons. He still wasn't near Spike's speed.

Then Spike leapt, latching onto the demons back and taking it for a slide through the grass along its face.

As Tell passed by the downed demon, it flipped over, knocking Spike up into the air, over Tell who ducked under Spike to avoid him.

Not looking back, he still chased the other two and pulled out a curved crescent shaped dagger. The closest running demon heard the sound and turned to face him. Rather than Spike who leapt on it, Tell kept running and brought the dagger up to viciously gut it. The demon roared and swatted him to the ground while Tell struggled to keep a hand on the dagger stuck in its gut.

"Oh no ohnonono." Tara hyperventilated as the last demon sprinted at them unhindered.

When it leapt at Tara, Cordelia pushed her to the side and the demon sped past her and hit the front of the van. Not even phased, it turned around and found Cordelia poking at it with a katana.

It batted her away and turned to Harmony who was throwing rocks at it.

"Yeah. How do you like that?" Harmony yelled at it then started running off, "No! Don't run after me!"

"Hey!" a voice came from behind the demon and roared at Tara as she came in swinging with the blood red axe.

It brought up a hand to catch the blade but Tara cut straight through it and cut half its head off too.

It stood there for a second then slumped to the ground dead.

Tara stood there for a second also then fell on her butt, exhausted, "Wow. That was easier than I thought it would be."

She took a look back to find Tell still busy stabbing his demon while Spike was running up to her.

"Darn." Spike said disappointedly as he arrived too late for the kill, "Well. Stop lollygagging around. Get the mojo back up, luv. You're doing wonders."

Tara shook her head at him in disbelief as she fell flat on her back, "I can't. I'm out. No mojo."

Spike turned around and in the distance more demons had separated from the main group, heading towards them.

"Oh great. More demons." Cordelia whined as she got up from the ground, "Why's it always demons? Why couldn't it be evil robots, just for a change?"

Spike looked at Cordelia weirdly and then a blast shook the ground as a simple mortar round hit the incoming demons head on, kicking up dirt into the air.

Some of the demons looked around confused but the rest kept running and then another round hit was launched in the same location. This time launching one of the smaller ones into the air and hitting even more as they ran into it.

That was the last straw for the demons and they took off everyway except to each other.

OXOXOX

Back at the armored car, Xander, Giles and Buffy were still fending for themselves. Buffy was wielding Xander's shotgun by the barrel like a club, swinging at demons half-heartedly.

A green demon with curly tentacles where its ears should be got clobbered by the shotgun across the head and dissolved almost instantly into a yellow snot like substance.

Buffy tiredly held the shotgun up in a batting pose, the shotgun now bent from the last blow.

"I can do this all night guys." Buffy told the demons who were starting to tire too.

By now the wind had caught up the smoke and pushed it back past the tipped armored van Willow had been driving. The armored van had most of the paint clawed off the sides but otherwise seemed in working condition for a portable metal vault.

The back door opened up and Gunn, Kennedy and Angel came out the back, all with crossbows in their hands and weapons strapped to their backs.

Seeing their friends being surrounded by a small group of demons, they launched some bolts into the demons. Seeing the reinforcements, the demons then tried to scatter like flies.

Pulling Buffy's favorite broadsword out of the sheath on her back, Kennedy placed the crossbow down and charged the demons fearlessly.

"Ah Crap." Gunn said as he and Angel tried to keep up.

Hacking into two of the retreating demons, she send limbs flying, a head off one and then cut the other one clean in half through the chest.

Then she chased the other demons on their way to the fog.

Already panting, Gunn gave up chasing them and followed Angel as he went to check on Buffy.

"You okay?"

Buffy was battered, beaten, bleeding but in one piece, "Been better. You?"

"Fine. We just kept the doors locked."

Buffy sighed, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Does anyone know what happened?" Gunn asked, "One minute we were shooting at the demons who were running into each other in the smoke and then we're the blind ones."

"Magic." Xander told them where he was resting against the riot car, "Tara said something about a mage. He must've used the smoke against somehow and turned the tables on us."

"A mage?" Buffy sighed, "I hate mages. They always linger. You don't think it's the same mage who summoned the blob monster, do you, Giles?"

Giles looked at her, drained, "I'm sure we will find out soon enough."

OXOXOX

Doc was muttering to himself.

Doc's face was a mask of undiluted scorn as he walked through the cloud, unaffected by the tear gas mixed into it.

"Luck was on their side today but next time, they won't be so lucky." he ranted, another line in a long series of vengeance wishes.

Then he stopped, along with a few other demons as he found something curious blocking his path out of the park.

"Put your hands in the air. You are under arrest." a loudspeaker crackled from the extensive police roadblock in front of him. It was packed tight with police, each of them pointing a gun of some description.

He turned to the demon next to him and asked "Did you know this town had police?"

The demon shook his head.

Unsure what to do, the demons started holding up their hands.

"Okay that's good. Now lie on the ground, face down - THEY'VE GOT A GUN! SHOOT! SHOOT THEM!"

OXOXOX

From across the other side of the national park, the collective members of the Scoobies, Angel investigation, two ambulances of paramedics and a good portion of the Sunnydale police turned to the distant crackle of gun fire. It went on for at least ten seconds until it ended.

A number of the Scoobies were being tended to by trained paramedics, particularly Buffy and Giles.

"Radio. Now." Xander called to one of the cops while Xander had a paramedic dressing a nick on his neck.

When the cop gave Xander the radio, he talked into it, "Chief? It's the mayor. Are you still there?"

"Mayor Harris? Yes. A little shaken though. We had to open fire on them."

Xander sighed, "First thing tomorrow, expect me in your office. We're going to have a talk about punctuality. For tonight, cordon of the park with tape then stand down."

"Y-yes sir."

"Catch." Xander said, tossing the radio piece to the cop who fumbled with it and eventually picked it off the pavement.

Sighing, he then pulled a cell phone out from inside his denim jacket and phoned an entirely different city official in nearby LA that was publicly known for waste management. This isn't far from the truth. They were a government funded demon disposal unit. Their job was to put anything that smelled bad in an especially built shredder then pour the results into drums and ship them to Alaska for secure safekeeping.

It's the American way.

Everyone who had joined in the fight looked at each other, almost all of them eager to talk about their part in the battle and sharing vital information but considering they were surrounded by those who weren't in the know, that would have to wait.

So instead, they shook hands, they patted each other on the back, smiled for the fact that they were alive and spoke volumes with their eyes.

"This tear gas stuff hurts my eyes." a cop said next to Xander as they rubbed their eyes.

Xander raised an eyebrow at him, "Tear gas does that."

"Xander." Buffy said quietly, almost somberly.

Xander turned around, frowning, "What?"

"You really should stop saving my life. It's getting a little embarrassing." Buffy chuckled.

Giles smirked, "Buffy is right. That was foolhardy and totally irresponsible. Good show."

"Xander. What you did out there for me and Giles." Buffy stopped in mid-sentence to wipe a tear away, then came back smiling, "That was amazing. Stupid but amazing. I'll never forget it."

Xander smiled back, "Now you know how I feel about you almost every night. Minus the stupid part."

"You know you can't keep him, right?" Anya asked as she wrapped her arms around Xander, "He's all mine."

Buffy smirked at her, "Just keeping him warm for you."

OXOXOX

The next night.

"Tara." Willow whispered, gently shaking Tara awake in the small car the two shared. It was one of those cars with two doors but four seats. The type where to get in the back seat you had to push one of the front seats forward.

"Okay. Just give me a moment." Tara said, rubbing her forehead to clear the grogginess from her head.

"You're going to sleep through your birthday." Willow taunted her.

"I think I need to exercise more." Tara said, blinking.

"I might be able to help with that." Willow said, leering at her girlfriend.

Tara smirked, "Well, we are parked."

"In a car? We haven't tried that yet." Willow said as she thought about it, "I might know a place. Secluded. Lots of pine fresh air. How about this weekend?"

Tara couldn't fight the smile erupting onto her face, "It's a date."

"Tara." Willow said, a bit more seriously.

"My.. Party." Tara said, a torn look on her face.

"We haven't really talked yet. About your family. You punched your father... It was actually a very good punch."

"I hurt my hand." Tara mumbled, "And I had this migraine. It think it helped with the aggression."

"What he was saying about you being a demon... You can tell me anything. You know that, right?"

"Yes. I know that. I was just scared. Willow, you're my everything. You're my world. I didn't want to lose you."

"And you won't. I'm right here." Willow told her, holding Tara's hand over her heart.

Tara sniffed, "Until yesterday, my entire life had revolved around the fact that one day I'd turn into a demon. That's actually why I came to Sunnydale."

"Really?"

Tara nodded, "It's actually also how I heard about the slayer too."

Willow frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Since I left home, I've been researching everything I could get my hands on that had to do with becoming a demon. Vengeance demons who were once humans, vampires, werewolves, slayers. All people who were once completely normal and then became something else. I was trying to find a cure. And maybe if I didn't find a cure, I could live here as a demon. Probably in a sewer. Eating rats."

"Buffy isn't a demon." Willow stated firmly.

Tara rolled her eyes, "I know that."

"What happened yesterday? What made you suddenly realize you weren't a demon? Besides the obvious."

"All this time I was looking for a cure, I never thought to find out if I needed one. Then..."

Then Tara frowned.

"What?" Willow asked.

"It wasn't me."

"What wasn't? You're not making a whole lot of sense."

"The Scythe. The whole idea of finding out if I was a demon or not wasn't mine. It came from the scythe."

Willow blinked, "Are you sure?"

Tara nodded, "And last night, it showed me the mage casting magic. I wanted to know what was happening and it showed me. And I was carrying it around without even noticing. That's something I wouldn't do. I'm not comfortable with weapons. And I punched Dad. It's not that I didn't want to but I never would."

"You think it's controlling you?"

"I don't know. I don't think it can when I'm not holding it."

"We'll talk to Giles about it tomorrow."

Tara nodded and Willow opened the door and got out.

"But tonight. It's your birthday." Willow danced awkwardly on purpose, "Go Tara, It's your birthday."

Tara chuckled and got out, closing the door behind her.

OXOXOX

Inside the Bronze..

As Tara and Willow came into the Bronze, Xander and Cordelia were arguing about super powers for anyone to hear.

"I'm the harbinger of sacred messages, bestowed to only me from above." Cordelia said haughtily.

Xander snorted, "Yeah but if I'm given a few days for the right papers to get through, I can bring the army into Sunnydale to handle pretty much whatever I want."

"I'm connected to a higher plane of existence." Cordelia countered.

"Get a room you two." Spike chuckled, making them both uncomfortable.

Giles hemmed, "Yes. Please stop. First of all Xander, being a city official is not a super power."

"I get free dry-cleaning." Xander pouted.

Cordelia blinked, "Really?... want to swap powers? Oh, Hey, it's that Tara girl. The reason we're all here."

Then came the gifts.

Dawn gave Tara a new broom and Spike gave her a plastic pair of red demon horns to wear on her head. She took them both in humor, getting the joke behind them.

Harmony gave her a ceramic miniature unicorn which Tara thought was slightly strange but thanked her anyway.

The other scoobies gave her well meaning and harmless magical baubles. She got the impression that they didn't know what to give her but it really was the thought that counted here and the crystal ball Giles gave her was actually very pretty.

From Angel investigations, she was given a token thank you in the form of a wind chime. Not only was it fitting but she was told it had a serene, calming selection of notes similar to a trickling brook.

Willow was the last to give her present. A necklace. When Tara put it on, Willow said she wasn't sure if it was more of a gift to Tara for being able to wear it or to Willow who got to see her wear it.

After Cordelia's barely hidden shock of finding out Tara was Willow's girlfriend, Tara and Willow joked about making Cordelia an honorary lesbian and what that might involve. Short hair cuts, pants and attending gay rights rallies mostly. There was something else they couldn't seem to remember but it didn't seem important.

"Tell didn't come." Dawn said with a frown.

"I don't think he's a birthday party kinda guy." Buffy told her sister.

"But he's nice." Tara said then added "For a demon."

"Yeah. Nice." Buffy agreed.

"But you just don't get him?" Xander asked her, "I don't either."

"Uh. Did anyone see him after the big brouhaha yesterday?" Buffy asked.

Everyone looked at each other, worried but Harmony put their thoughts to rest, "Yeah. I did. He just walked off."

"He left town?" Dawn asked, "But he didn't even say goodbye."

Harmony shrugged and drank some more mountain dew.

Giles was across the room, talking slightly more politely with Michael who was keeping an eye on his charge.

Kennedy on the other hand was oblivious to him as she talked enthusiastically to Gunn about something she killed.

"In half!" Kennedy yelled manically, "I cut it in half, diagonally. That was so awesome."

"I must say, it was charitable for you to allow Kennedy to stay one more day." Giles said as he watched Kennedy too.

"After yesterdays schmozzle I thought she deserved a small reward. Besides, it's not as if we need to be anywhere in particular. Vampires are just the same wherever you go."

"Buffy made you stay, didn't she?" Giles asked proudly.

Michael sighed, "I don't know how you control her."

"I don't dare try. I just point her at the monsters."

The music on the dance floor stopped and the lights dimmed, catching everyone's attention. But the dimness was short lived as a searchlight lit up the bartender who was standing on the bar.

"Just a minute of your time people." the bartender said, calming the crowd, "I'm sure a lot of you heard the fight last night and I'm sure even more of you heard about it this morning. I just thought we would all like to raise our glasses to the guy who pushed those neo-Nazi extremists out of our town, the man of the hour, our new mayor, Alexander Harris. There he is. Get him, before he runs."

People cheered and the hot light zipped across the floor to hit Xander, who was looking a bit lost.

"Hey." Xander said, then took to bowing and urging for quiet, "Thank you. Thanks. But I can't take the credit."

He walked out of the beam and it followed him, so he kept talking.

"The real credit should go to the police and the other unsung heroes of Sunnydale." Xander said, as he continued to walk across the floor, looking fondly at his friends as he did, "And if I truly am the man of the hour then I'd like to show you the woman of the hour. Tara Maclay. It's her birthday. People, give her a cheer."

Tara gasped and covered her face with her hands. Her doing so just made them cheer harder.

But soon after, not soon enough for Tara, the lights went back to normal and the music was back on.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Tara took her hands away and with an incredibly red face she asked "Xander, I feel like I'm going to die from embarrassment. How could you?"

"Delegation. It's the key to effective management." Xander said meanly.

"Did they give you book on being an evil mayor or something?" Buffy asked.

Xander nodded, "Several but I haven't finished any of them yet."

"How about we have a dance now?" Willow asked Tara who nodded weakly, anything to get away from where she was standing.

Before she knew it, Tara found herself slow dancing in the world that was Willow. It was a world where everything was warm and there were arms draped over her back. It was her own personal world that she never wanted to leave.

Looking up into her world's eyes, she said "This has been my best birthday yet."

"And they will only get better. I promise."

OXOXOX

FIN.

Okay. Not exactly the touching ending "Family" had on BTVS had but at least I didn't use magic.

Hmm. Maybe I should've… Something to consider later. :)

And remember people, feedback makes the world go around.


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